The Issue of Perspective in Margaret Mead’s Autobiography
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
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| Description | The latest major shift from autobiography to life writing is not new and will not be the last change. Genres appear, develop, expand, merge, and blur. The issue of perspective has been discussed from different points of view, including the recent one focusing on modern trends in life writing. According to some websites, an autobiographical account would be considered to belong to one genre or more. Some critics consider perspective when classifying literary work as art or science or in or out of a canon. Some elements define perspective, for example, bricolage, thick description, and interactions. Generally, there is a consensus that boundaries of genres are not clear cut. In Margaret Mead’s autobiography Blackberry Winter: My Earlier Years, perspective played a role in reconstructing her life story, making it difficult to recognize her work as art or science. The dynamic between art and science is very complex, and an expanded model that combines concepts of artistic and scientific character is required to capture these interactions. Much scientific content could go missing in the literature, or the literature could disappear from science if we categorize a text without considering different perspectives. This study will contribute to searching for literary and scientific texts. In this case, the perspective could play a role as the needs and expectations of the stakeholders are taken into account. |
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