Is Autobiographical Writing a Historical Document?: The Impact of Self-Censorship on Life Narratives

Abstract

Self-censorship is the act of censoring one's own written or spoken words, usually out of fear of punishment or loss of face but sometimes also out of respect for the feelings of others. Self-censorship is usually related to public discourse—whether in literature, the visual arts or in the media—but it may infiltrate private discourse if the speaker has internalised the rules of what can be said and what should remain unsaid. In this chapter, we analyse the linguistic mechanisms of self-censorship in the context of the autobiographical writings of Andrzej Czcibor-Piotrowski (1931–2014). The self-censorship can be traced to the political system in works published prior to 1989 but a different justification is required for the novels published after 1989 when there was more freedom of expression in Poland. We believe that the explanation can be traced to the trauma experienced in childhood and the inability to disclose true memories, even some 70 years later. This finding challenges somewhat the concept of the documentary value of life writings from periods of historical terror.