"The Internet has boosted autobiographical expression," says an expert at the University of Navarra.
“Internet ha potenciado la expresión autobiográfica”, afirma una experta en la Universidad de Navarra
"The Internet has boosted autobiographical expression," says an expert at the University of Navarra.
According to Anna Caballé, new technologies have caused "the 'I' to stop being an intimate experience and become a cover letter".
"The Internet has boosted autobiographical expression". This was stated today at the University of Navarra by Anna Caballé, professor of Spanish Literature and manager of the Autobiographical programs of study Unit of the University of Barcelona.
He also stressed that "thanks to new technologies and social networks, the autobiographical subject nowadays has a very public component", to which he added that "the 'I' has ceased to be an intimate experience to become a cover letter".
The expert, who is taking part in the I conference of Autobiographical Writing organized by the department of Hispanic Linguistics and Modern Languages of the campus of Pamplona, assured that "we have gone from a society that was only interested in the autobiographies of historically relevant characters to a society that is interested in the opposite".
In this sense, he indicated that "the autobiography of individuals who do not have the servitude of a public character can be much freer, since they do not owe it to an audience that expects to find a certain profile of the character. Therefore, sometimes they can be more attractive, profound or complex".
Anna Caballé explained some similarities and differences that exist between 'biography' and 'autobiography': "From the point of view of reception, both genres are very close, because the reader of autobiographies is usually a reader of biographies; but from the point of view of creation, a biographer must be more goal and has the obligation to contrast, while the autobiographer is perfectly entitled to explain things from his point of view".
Finally, he said that to speak of autobiography exclusively as a literary creation is a reduction, "since this genre is not a simple writing exercise, but a cultural tool that can be analyzed from multiple perspectives: anthropological, historical, social, psychoanalytical, etc.".