Life writing the liminal figure: Boundaries of identity and narrative fragmentation

Abstract

Carl Rollyson argues that “the focus of biography is on the subject, not the biographer, yet half the story of a biography is, of course, who is telling the story.” Rollyson maintains the significance of the presence of the biographer within the text; he argues for the importance of maintaining writer identity and agency. Rollyson’s perspective clearly acknowledges the proximity between writer and subject, which proves particularly significant in father-daughter narratives. This project consists of a critical commentary (serving as the dissertation or thesis) presented alongside a creative artefact. The latter adopts the form of a biographical memoir, which is thematically constructed using temporally fragmented vignettes. Fragmented narrative facilitates the oscillation between what I have termed ‘biography vignettes’ and ‘memoir vignettes.’ Both vignette styles blur the boundaries between fact and fiction. These, in turn, give rise to the application of what Saidiya Hartman terms “critical fabulation” – the process of speculative narration whereby writers make sense of the historical gaps present in narrative histories through the act of “laboring to paint as full a picture of the lives” of subjects as possible. The critical commentary is entitled: Fragmented narratives, fragmented lives: Writing the life of a liminal father. By employing a combination of literary criticism alongside existing narratives viewed through the lenses of cultural and liminal theory, the critical commentary aims to provide a critique of some examples of relevant biographical memoirs to underscore the treatment of father-centred narratives constructed by daughters. This aim will be achieved by demonstrating how existing literature frames issues pertaining to masculinity, violence, and sexism represented against a backdrop of coloniality and racism among absent and present fathers within the South African context.