LELE DISCUSS/ issues raised in the process of self-representation

Self-representation and autobiography writing : issues ?

DEFINITION 
self-life writing
« the retrospective narrative in prose that someone makes of his own existence when he puts the principal accent upon his life, especially upon the story of his own personality »
the author = the narrator = the name on the cover => 1st person narrative
so there's an implied contract = the author will tell the truth = is the author RELIABLE ?

Self-representation / self-life writing poses the same problems of TRUTH / of representing the reality => WHY ? Because we have access to one version of the story.
- Is it possible to tell the truth ? To represent the reality ?
No because there is always a discrepancy / a gap / a disparity between the reality and the way it's told
No because of MEMORY => as one looks back on his life, one may have troubles remembering the events accurately.
No because as one writes his/her autobiography, a selection has to take place. Which events are worth telling ? Which events will be remembered ?
Some memories are more vivid / sharp than others.
=> in fact we remember IMPORTANT events, those which made us who we are.
CONCLUSION= is it important that reality can't be represented ?
No, it's not. Stanley Fish : « autobiographers cannot lie because anything they say, however mendacious, is the truth about themselves, whether they know it or not ».

Lucian Freud : three self-portraits = three different representations of the same person over time.
Rockwell : represent the issue of representing oneself.
Other artists who painted self-portraits : Francis Bacon, Jean-Michel Basquiat,

creation => the narrative or a canvas. Creating a work of art.

recreation => a new version of oneself / using language to recreate one's life / reacreating oneself in a painting or in a narrative.
Lucian Freud = recreates himself over time (getting older = gaining experience)
Rockwell = recreation in the sense of «having fun with » / having fun representing himself. Recreates himself three times but at the same moment.