http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/keyword/autobiography Inquiries Journal provides undergraduate and graduate students around the world a platform for the wide dissemination of academic work over a range of core disciplines. en-us Sun, 02 Aug 2026 18:51:01 -0400 Sun, 02 Aug 2026 18:51:01 -0400 http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/945/spiritual-autobiography-and-dave-eggers-what-is-the-what By Johanna L. Beck - Spiritual autobiographies have a long and rich history as a form of memoir, beginning at about 397AD with the release of Saint Augustine’s Confessions. Since this time, many spiritual works have evolved out of this tradition and are still being produced today. Although not labeled as such, Dave Eggers’ What is the What is a modern version of the spiritual autobiography, following the form and contextual aspects of many of its predecessors as it traces the journey of a Lost Boy and Sudanese refugee to America. This paper serves to compare the traditionally accepted spiritual autobiography... Sat, 06 Dec 2014 08:45 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/945/spiritual-autobiography-and-dave-eggers-what-is-the-what http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/937/the-modern-memoir-popular-confession-and-how-it-sells-a-million-little-pieces By Edward A. Carr - In this context, the reasons that Frey would manipulate key aspects of his memoir are straightforward: in order to make the story more dramatic and compelling, to get his story published, and to sell many copies. In The Limits of Biography: Trauma and Testimony, Leigh Gilmore looks at the emerging popularity of memoir and its relation to trauma culture. Gilmore notes that “the literary market has proved a shaping force. Although it is unclear whether the market has led or followed, market demand currently encourages marketing practices such as subtitling an author’s first book &ldquo... Tue, 04 Nov 2014 05:18 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/937/the-modern-memoir-popular-confession-and-how-it-sells-a-million-little-pieces http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/925/what-is-the-what-as-a-religious-memoir By James K. Aumack - Eggers provides Deng’s account of his experiences as a part of the Lost Boys of Sudan in the Second Sudanese Civil War. The civil war took place from 1983-2005, due in large part to the introduction of Sharia law. According to Robert W. Hefner (1992), “most activists making these appeals [for Sharia law] were mainstream Muslims intent on abiding by what they regarded as the commands of their faith” (p. 1). Although there are varying opinions on the main cause of the second civil war, Ole Frahm (2012) said that the motivating factor for the beginning of the war was, “the... Fri, 17 Oct 2014 11:02 EDT http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/925/what-is-the-what-as-a-religious-memoir http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/366/dealing-with-time-in-an-autobiography By Rebecca A. Demarest - It is a push on the part of the author to make sense of the “temporality,” the chaos of time which is their life and recollections. The author is faced with a monumental decision in portraying his past because, as Barrett John Mandel argues, “his present creates his past ‘by inspiring meaningless data with interpretation, direction, suggestiveness – life. But as long as I live, my past is rooted in my present and springs to life with my present’” (Renza 271-272). Because of this connection between the past and present, “Temporal perspectives&hellip... Tue, 18 Jan 2011 10:48 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/366/dealing-with-time-in-an-autobiography http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/81/an-insatiable-hunger-a-literary-analysis-of-richard-wrights-autobiography-black-boy By Sarah J. Turner - The autobiography Black Boy, by Richard Wright, is a tale of hope and determination. It catalogues Wright’s life growing up as an African-American in Jim Crow South, depicting the economic and social struggles that were stereotypical for African-Americans at the time. It follows him through his youth, examining the hardships and obstacles faced by both Wright and his family. It is a story about the hardships and obstacles faced by a poverty-stricken family, and one boy’s determination to escape the prison created by these circumstances. Beyond this, Black Boy is a story about a life... Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:24 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/81/an-insatiable-hunger-a-literary-analysis-of-richard-wrights-autobiography-black-boy http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/31/sublime-inauthenticity-how-critical-is-truth-in-autobiography By Scott Berghegger - In the autobiography, time and history, at first glance, seem paramount. After all, autobiography is the account of the things that have happened in a person’s life, selected and made ready for public consumption, usually written in the first person. However, the understanding of autobiographical narratives can vary from story to story. Is the purpose of the autobiography to deduce truth from the myriad of subjective experiences surrounding history? Is it a self-searching exercise taken on by the most poetic and self-indulgent among us? How critical is memory, that fragile function of the... Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:58 EST http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/31/sublime-inauthenticity-how-critical-is-truth-in-autobiography