Panel: Collaboration: Intended, Untended, by Whom, and for Whom?
Copanelists: Oliver Berghof and Kamaoli Kuwada
Collaborative Life Writing is an ambiguous literary genre giving rise to some perplexing conundrums: Is this biography or autobiography? Who is the author? Whose story is it, anyway? Taking a different perspective, this paper considers collaborative life writing not as genre but as practice.
In his discussion of “dictated autobiographies,” M. A. Sanders suggests that such works should be read with a view to examining “the complex dynamics of collaboration and coauthorship” (446). A number of analyses have been conducted along these lines, examining written texts for what they reveal about the writer’s and subject’s respective contributions. However, this paper is based on the premise that a different perspective may be gained by moving beyond the text to a consideration of writers’ accounts of their personal experiences. An examination of writers’ accounts of collaboration shows that the process commonly begins with subjects telling their story to the writer. With the conversion of this oral account into a written account, a new conundrum emerges: is this transcription or translation?
I will present a selection of writers’ published accounts of their experiences of life writing collaboration, paying particular attention to the ways in which writers and subjects negotiate the conversion of the oral account into the written account. The intent is to present examples of the varying degrees to which this process may be understood as either transcription or translation.
Sandra Lindemann is a PhD candidate in the School of Communication at the University of South Australia. Her background is in the Social Sciences, and she has Honours and Masters degrees in Anthropology. After taking time out to raise a family, she completed an Advanced Diploma in Professional Writing, and began writing biography. Her first work was the story of Ben Yengi, a Sudanese refugee who, from the time of his arrival in Australia in 1970, worked tirelessly for the benefit of Australia’s indigenous people, as well as for his fellow migrants and refugees. Sandra is currently writing the biography of Gisela Behrend, a post-war refugee from East Prussia. These writing experiences stimulated Sandra’s interest in the practical and ethical aspects of collaborative life writing, and prompted her to undertake her research in this area for a PhD. The research involves interviews with practicing writers as well as the examination of writers’ published accounts of their experiences. The aim of the research is to gain an understanding of the process of collaboration, the dynamics of the writer-subject relationship, and the ethical issues associated with this particular form of professional writing practice.