Autobiographical Significance Research Articles

Corrigendum to “Autobiographical Significance of Meaningful Musical Experiences: Reflections on Youth and Identity”

Corrigendum to “Autobiographical Significance of Meaningful Musical Experiences: Reflections on Youth and Identity”

Photographer–camera–place relations: reflections on postphenomenology and landscape photography practice

In the light of a postphenomenological understanding of technological artefacts as mediators of experience in non-neutral (rather than determinist) ways, this study set out to explore ways in which the triad of photographer–camera–place is co-constituted. I examined the relations that emerged in the interaction of these three elements within the context of landscape photography practice. For this purpose, I created three photographic events: I photographed three different places of autobiographical significance with different photographic systems, whose choice was variously inspired by each particular place and my connection to it. Through this reflection on practice, I examine the way in which, in each case, the self–camera–place triad was co-constituted, producing a subjective and context-specific understanding of the mediatory role of the photographic technologies that I used. The results of this reflection have implications for practice in that they postulate an engaged approach to landscape photography based on the co-constitution of self, technology and place rather than the traditional way of looking associated with landscape. It also has theoretical implications in proposing a relational framework, based on this triad, for reading representations of landscape.

Autobiographical Significance of Meaningful Musical Experiences: Reflections on Youth and Identity

Meaningful musical experiences during youth can leave a lasting impression on an individual by shaping their identity and place in the world. This study examines such experiences in relation to autobiography and self-identity. An online questionnaire ( N = 50) was distributed to establish how individuals understood musical experiences from their youth as important to their past and present self-identities. Following the online study, 10 questionnaire participants were selected to be interviewed to further examine the meanings created within their nominated experiences, and how these meanings had been autobiographically contextualised against the backdrop of the memory of these experiences. Questionnaire data was analysed using Thematic Analysis to establish shared autobiographical- and identity-related concepts. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis served as the methodological framework for analysing the participant interviews to support a more individualised interpretation of each participant’s experience. Data from the online questionnaire were analysed to reveal a network of identity- and autobiography-relevant themes, which were organised under three wider thematic categories: the self, the social, and the musical. Analysis of the interviews, guided by Identity Theory, revealed individual differences in participants’ processes of identity formation, relationships with music, and attitudes towards their past selves. In both sets of data, prominent themes emerged around ideas of personal transformation and pivoting to a new path in life. These findings frame autobiographically significant musical experiences as powerful in their potential to contribute to identity formation, although their impact varies for each individual. We assessed this autobiographical significance through the enduring salience over time of the identity the experience affected, enabled by our respondents’ reflections on both their past and their present self-identities. Our results illustrate that music can support a wide range of self-identity-relevant meanings, and fundamentally transform our sense of who we are.

The ‘Waste Land’ project: framing practice-based research through literary adaptation

ABSTRACTT. S Eliot’s seminal poem, ‘The Waste Land’ (1922) was chosen as an explorative text to acquire an understanding of my interpretation methods for my practice-based PhD, which culminated in a collection of photographic and video installations (2005–2010). Examination of orthodox film adaptation theory established the key debates within this genre – its emphasis upon fidelity criticism, the latitude of translation and the range of methods available to the adaptor. Recognition of the subversive quality of European avant-garde films and its relationship to modernist literature allowed me to implement appropriate stylistic strategies that replicated ‘The Waste Land’s’ cinematic montage. This article considers the way in which my early video experiments were informed by this theoretical and contextual framework, testing out different modes of adaptation in order to reflect upon my process. I argue that undertaking such a methodical approach enabled a better understanding of my role as an editor, re-imagining the source text through extracting fragmentary elements that possess an autobiographical significance. By questioning how literature operated as a resource to represent the self within my practice and acknowledging biographical connections to Eliot, the ‘Waste Land’ project became an attempt to address the breakdown of my parent’s marriage.

Krapp at the Hawk’s Well: Beckett, Yeats, and Joyce

abstract: Starting from the recognized problematic of choice as dramatic determinant in Krapp’s Last Tape (1958), this study scrutinizes the thematic affinity and resemblances in figuration between the Beckett play and another piece about an old man reviewing his life, W.B. Yeats’s Noh-inspired At the Hawk’s Well (1917), which Beckett is known to have admired. In light of the acknowledged (though disputed) autobiographical significance of Krapp’s life-changing “vision,” the linkage between this play and Beckett’s relation to his mentor and greatest influence, James Joyce, is considered. It is argued that the Yeats play acts as a thematic model and artistic buffer that provides vital imaginative space for Beckett in his creative agon with Joyce as precursor.

Autobiographical significance in past and future public semantic memory: A case-study

Refined investigation of infrequent dissociations within remote memory, such as preservation of autobiographical episodic memory and selective impairment of public semantic memory could provide some insight on the interactions of long-term memory systems and their underlying brain correlates. Combining clinical neuropsychological and neuroimaging methods in the present study, we examined a patient surgically treated for temporal lobe epilepsy showing this rare pattern of dissociation. Specifically, we investigated along the two temporal directions, past and future, his autobiographical episodic memory, semantic memory for public events and famous people and their interaction through the concept of autobiographical significance (AS). The results showed impaired ability not only to recall past but also to imagine future public events in a context of preserved past and future personal episodic memory. Remarkably, impersonal future thinking was impaired regardless of AS, while the autobiographical-significant public past knowledge relied exclusively on the patient's spared autobiographical episodic memory. These results were corroborated by neuroimaging data showing the absence of brain activation for public knowledge devoid of personal significance and activation of the autobiographical memory cerebral network for personally significant public knowledge. Our findings suggest that AS did not ‘restore’ the code to access public semantic memory, but bypassed it by using personal memory sources successful only for past public recollections. Therefore, remembering impersonal and imagining public events seems to require the contribution of public semantic knowledge per se. The patient's cognitive profile suggested a reorganization of memory systems.

Red Lining and Blue Penciling The Kingis Quair

THE integrity of the The Kingis Quair has been repeatedly ques tioned in two ways: its genuineness as an autobiographical poem has been doubted, and its unity as a work of art has been disputed. In theory, the unity of this poem and the identity of its author should be discrete issues. But, in practice, these two uncertainties about The Kingis Quair remain inextricable considerations. Against the deixis of the title (which may be dismissed as a scribe's fiction) and against all prima facie indications of the poem's autobiographical significance, skeptics have insistently pointed out that this little treatise (1352) contains no nam ing of James nor any explicit reference to the dreamer-narrator as a king; furthermore, no other poems can still be legitimately attributed to the pen of King James I of Scotland.1 Nevertheless, all readers, including

Martha Graham's Haunting Body: Autobiography at the Intersection of Writing and Dancing

In this article I employ modern dance pioneer Martha Graham's memoir Blood Memory (1991) to complicate understandings of autobiography. Following a deconstructive perspective (Buse and Stott 1999; Derrida 1994) and taking up feminist critiques of both autobiography (Benstock 1988; Chanfrault-Duchet 2000) and the effects of embodiment (Phelan 1997; Albright 1997), I theorize autobiography as a haunting interstice between writing and the body. I suggest that while the written account is an important means to chart a life, there are forms of autobiography that remain unrepresentable in the frame of writing. This impossibility is most poignant in Blood Memory as Graham struggles to represent the autobiographical significance of the embodied performance yet is haunted by the inability to fully articulate in writing its significance for her. I argue that in encountering the written autobiography we should not disavow this haunting but rather acknowledge its importance as a means of encountering that life.To trouble tacit assumptions about written autobiography, I ask, How might written autobiography be understood as haunted? And how might dance serve to illustrate its haunted state? Lastly, what are the possible effects of understanding written autobiography as haunted? To address these questions I first consider the unsettled encounter with Graham's Blood Memory. I theorize the effects of this encounter as stemming from the shadowy but persistent presence of Graham's danced oeuvre as an alternative form of autobiography and argue that this oeuvre could also be considered an autobiographical text. Then placing the “proper” written autobiography in dialogue with the danced autobiography, I posit the haunted status of autobiography itself–as always already troubled by multiple and alternative textual productions of self that can be both bodily and written in form. Finally, I suggest the possible effects of considering autobiography in this way.

Capitalizing on the Self-Referencing Effect in General Psychology: A Preliminary Study

After reviewing the literature on the effect of personal relevance (self-schema, self-referencing effect, autobiographical significance, etc.), I implemented a constructivist narrative assignment for general psychology students. I hoped the assignment would enhance learning of and memory for psychological principles. Students wrote personal relevance papers in which they described psychological principles in their own words and provided examples of how the principles they chose were relevant in their own lives. Students assigned to write the papers produced higher exam scores. Moreover, student feedback revealed other benefits, including improved writing quality, higher grades, and increased motivation to learn.

Processing of autobiographical memory retrieval cues in borderline personality disorder

Background Affective dysregulation in borderline personality disorder (BPD) in response to both external stimuli and memories has been shown to be associated with functional alterations of limbic and prefrontal brain areas. This study aimed to examine neuronal networks involved in autobiographical memory retrieval using standardized stimuli that gain autobiographical significance by illustrating marked solitary and social situations of human life. Methods Using event-related functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), we examined the processing of pictures from the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) in 14 BPD patients and 14 controls. Results In both groups, TAT stimuli activated brain areas known to be involved in autobiographical memory retrieval. BPD subjects lacked differential amygdala, orbitofrontal and cingulate activations for TAT versus neutral stimuli. In the TAT condition, compared to controls, BPD subjects displayed increased BOLD responses in the bilateral orbitofrontal and insular regions, in the left anterior cingulate and medial prefrontal cortex, as well as in the parietal and parahippocampal areas, consistent with a more aversive and arousing experience assessed by self-reports. Conclusions Increased BOLD responses during TAT processing in BPD subjects were in line with previously reported changes in anterior cingulate and orbitofrontal cortices, which are known to be involved in memory retrieval. However, BPD subjects displayed hyperactivation in these areas for both TAT and neutral stimuli. The deficit of selective activation of areas involved in autobiographical memory retrieval suggests a general tendency towards a self-referential mode of information processing in BPD, or a failure to switch between emotionally salient and neutral stimuli.

Neural correlates of remembering/knowing famous people: An event-related fMRI study

It has been suggested that knowledge about some famous people depends on both a generic semantic component and an autobiographical component [Westmacott, R., & Moscovitch, M. (2003). The contribution of autobiographical significance to semantic memory. Memory and Cognition, 31, 761–774]. The neuropsychological studies of semantic dementia (SD) and Alzheimer disease (AD) demonstrated that the two aspects are very likely to be mediated by different brain structures, with the episodic component being highly dependent upon the integrity of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) [Westmacott, R., Black, S. E., Freedman, M., & Moscovitch, M. (2004). The contribution of autobiographical significance to semantic memory: Evidence from Alzheimer's disease, semantic dementia, and amnesia. Neuropsychologia, 42, 25–48]. Using an fMRI design in healthy participants, we aimed: (i) to investigate the pattern of brain activations sustaining the autobiographical and the semantic aspects of knowledge about famous persons. Moreover, (ii) we examined if the stimulus material (face/name) influences the lateralisation of the cerebral networks. Our findings suggested that different patterns of activation corresponded to the presence or absence of personal significance linked to semantic knowledge; MTL was engaged only in the former case. Although choice of stimulus material did not influence the hemispheric lateralisation in “classical” terms, it did play a role in engaging different cerebral regions.

The contribution of autobiographical significance to semantic memory: evidence from Alzheimer’s disease, semantic dementia, and amnesia

In a previous study [Memory Cognit., in press], we demonstrated that some semantic concepts are more likely than others to be associated with specific personal memories, and that this autobiographical significance gives these concepts special status in long-term memory. In this paper, we explore the possible neural correlates of autobiographically significant semantic knowledge and examine whether or not autobiographical significance is a factor in determining patterns of semantic memory loss caused by brain damage. Using famous names that were rated on various attributes, including autobiographical significance, by control participants in a norming study [Memory Cognit., in press], we found that semantic dementia (SD) patients were more likely to recognize, identify and remember autobiographically significant episodes involving famous names that were rated high in autobiographical significance as compared to equally familiar names that were rated low. By contrast, people with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and people with medial temporal lobe (MTL) amnesia did not exhibit this preference for names rated high in autobiographical significance. Furthermore, in tests of free recall, recognition, fame judgment and speeded reading, semantic dementia patients demonstrated a performance advantage for autobiographically significant famous names, whereas the other patient groups did not. These findings suggest a critical role for medial temporal regions in the mediation of autobiographical memory and the interaction between personal experience and semantic memory. Theoretical implications are discussed.

The contribution of autobiographical significance to semantic memory.

We examined the importance of autobiographical significance (AS) in the representation and organization of semantic memory by examining which famous people are most likely to be associated with specific personal memories and whether or not this AS can be distinguished from other factors, such as familiarity. Norming studies with 45- to 55-year-old and 65- to 80-year-old participants suggested that AS is distinct from familiarity and that it interacts closely with emotional salience. Furthermore, in a set of experiments, we tested the hypothesis that AS is an important organizing principle in long-term episodic and semantic memory by contrasting performances on tests of recall, recognition, fame judgment, and speeded reading for famous names judged to be of either high or low personal relevance. Participants demonstrated a performance advantage (i.e., enhanced memory and faster responding) for autobiographically significant famous names, regardless of whether their own judgments or others' judgments were used to classify the names. The implications of these findings for models of semantic memory are discussed.

Freud's private mini-monograph on his own dreams. A contribution to the celebration of the centenary of The interpretation of dreams.

A virtually unknown brief commentary by Freud on the characteristics of his own dreams is described and discussed. Freud's mini-monograph, discovered after some 80 years, has autobiographical, theoretical and organisational significance in the enigmatic context of the early development of psychoanalysis. Found among papers of Alfred Adler, this extraordinary document adds to our knowledge of psychoanalytic history, including the significance of dreams in the evolution of psychoanalytic thought. Freud's commentary permitted the identification of a particular dream as his own. This dream had been presented in anonymity to the fledgling Vienna Psychoanalytic Society for interpretation. The dream was later inserted, again anonymously, into The Interpretation of Dreams with Freud's own remarkable pre-oedipal interpretation. Freud's conflicted relationships with Adler and Jung are considered in historical context.

Freud's private mini‐monograph on his own dreams: A contribution to the celebration of the centenary of the interpretation of dreams

A virtually unknown brief commentary by Freud on the characteristics of his own dreams is described and discussed. Freud's mini‐monograph, discovered after some 80 years, has autobiographical, theoretical and organisational significance in the enigmatic context of the early development of psychoanalysis. Found among papers of Alfred Adler, this extraordinary document adds to our knowledge of psychoanalytic history, including the significance of dreams in the evolution of psychoanalytic thought. Freud's commentary permitted the identification of a particular dream as his own. This dream had been presented in anonymity to the fledgling Vienna Psychoanalytic Society for interpretation. The dream was later inserted, again anonymously, into The Interpretation of Dreams with Freud's own remarkable pre‐oedipal interpretation. Freud's conflicted relationships with Adler and Jung are considered in historical context.

Different Patterns of Autobiographical Memory Loss in Semantic Dementia and Medial Temporal Lobe Amnesia: a Challenge to Consolidation Theory.

Temporally graded retrograde memory loss, with a disproportionate impairment of recent relative to remote memories, is considered a hallmark of medial temporal lobe amnesia. According to consolidation theory, the hippocampal complex, which includes the hippocampal formation, parahippocampal gyrus, the entorhinal and perirhinal cortex, plays a time-limited role in memory, needed only until consolidation in the neocortex is complete (Squire, Psychological Review 1992; 99: 195–231). Recent support for this theory comes from findings of a reverse gradient in people with semantic dementia with neocortical degeneration but a relatively preserved hippocampal complex (Hodges and Graham, Neuropsychologia 1998; 36: 803–25). Consolidation theory is challenged by evidence that remote autobiographical memory is not always spared in amnesia (Nadel and Moscovitch, Current Opinion in Neurobiology 1997; 7: 217–27) and that semantic memory becomes highly personalized in semantic dementia (Snowden et al., Memory 1995; 3: 225–46). According to Nadel and Moscovitch, the hippocampal complex is needed to retain and retrieve detailed memories of autobiographical episodes no matter how old they are. To test consolidation theory against the opposing view, we investigated the role of the hippocampal complex in recent and remote autobiographical and personal semantic memory by contrasting the memory of a semantic dementia patient, EL, with that of an amnesic patient, KG, using family photographs as recall cues. KG demonstrated a complete loss of autobiographical episodes with a sparing of autobiographical facts; EL demonstrated well-preserved memory for episodes with a reverse gradient for personally relevant names. The influence of autobiographical significance on memory for names of public figures was examined further by comparing the effect that familiarity and recollection had on recognition of names of famous people and famous places. EL’s memory was influenced by autobiographical significance, whereas KC’s was not. We propose that the hippocampal complex plays a permanent role in the storage and retrieval of autobiographical episodes and that autobiographical significance may affect semantic representations.

An Interview with Wynton Marsalis

Wynton Marsalis came to the attention of the media in the early 1980s. This was in part because his virtuoso trumpet technique and ability to excel in both jazz and classical music while still a teenager provided the combination of legitimacy and novelty that is the basis for the best light journalism. However, light journalism is not about music; it's about personality. So Marsalis's music became a backdrop that inspired in-depth discussion of his Italian suits, his controversial statements, his feud with Miles Davis and his obsession with jazz. Now, nearly 10 years later, the novelty has worn off. Marsalis doesn't play classical music any more, and he's too old for his accomplishments to be amazing because of his youth. (He was afew weeks shy of his 28th birthday when this interview was conducted at his home in downtown Manhattan.) Yet as a musician he has grown impressively. And his statements about the development of jazz and its significance in American culture reflect a degree of study and maturity that he couldn't help but lack as a teenager. In this, his first Callaloo interview, conducted on September 18, 1989, Marsalis traces his musical development. Even beyond their autobiographical significance, his statements about his own revelations as a student of jazz are enlightening in part because they help paint a portrait of the study and discipline required of generations of musicians whose accomplishments were often deemed to be beneath serious discourse.

Voegelin's Search for OrderIn Search of Order.Eric Voegelin

torrent of recent publications contains a small gem which has not sufficiently been noticed perhaps by philosophers and political theorists: Eric Voegelin's In Search of Order. Posthumously published, the slender volume constitutes a fitting epitaph to the author's life-long intellectual journey and pilgrim's progress. As is well known, Voegelin's sprawling opus ranged over the fields of philosophy, politics, anthropology, and (to mention just a few); probably his most celebrated work so far had been the multi-volume Order and History' which recounted the history of from the dawn of mankind to the ecumenic age and which has justly been acclaimed as a classic of philosophical historiography in our time. In Search of Order serves as sequel and capstone to this magnum opus-with a twist. unsuspecting and hurried reader might have expected the volume to yield a final summation, a definitive statement of the author's position regarding order. Yet, as it stands, the volume is a torso and offers no complete doctrine -which aptly matches the author's steadily growing conviction of the unending and unfinishable character of his quest (and of any genuine inquiry). In the words of Ellis Sandoz who introduces the volume (p. 1): The fact that the quest of order is an unfinished story as told by Voegelin is most fitting; for, as he insisted, neither reality nor philosophy can be reduced to a system. Thus, the form of the present work can be said to symbolize Voegelin's philosophical vision of and comprehensive reality as an unfinished tale, one told by God in the reflective language of spiritually gifted men and women open to the of truth. While revealing as an epitaph, however, the new volume has more than autobiographical significance. Generally speaking, Voegelin's writings cannot narrowly be tied to authorial intent-because of the broader mystery of truth in which inquiry proceeds. reason that, for him, philosophy could not be reduced to a system was not resignation or some penchant for ob-

Fourteenth Annual Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Music King's College, London July, 1986

The Fourteenth Annual Conference on medieval and Renaissance Music was held at King's College, London (or more specifically in its annex, Chelsea College in King's Road), under the competent auspices of Dr. Mark Everist and his assistants Bob and 312 CristleJudd. An exceptionally well organized program had resulted in no more than four free papers out of a total of twenty-eight, so these too were grouped together as an opening session under the chairmanship of Brian Trowell; and it turned out to be as unified as any other, if French and Italian vocal music of the Renaissance is a unifying theme. Lawrence Bernstein opened with a close analysis of the musical characteristics of the Parisian chanson; Kathleen Powers examined the poetry of the madrigale spirituale; Honey Meconi looked at the chronological implications of Molinet's reference to La Rue in his Deploration on the death of Josquin; and Paula Higgins asked us to reconsider the supposed autobiographical significance of Busnois's chansons on Jacqueline de Hacqueville. A good start to an entertaining weekend.

VIII. Sidney at Bartholomew Fair

The revised Arcadia has long been recognized as a great treasure-house of sixteenth-century references. Scholars have unearthed from incidental and episodical passages many significant bits of political and social background. Like a mosaic, these pieces are gradually fitted together to complete the work; so that each fragment, no matter how small, fits into its place. Among the scholars eminent in this field are Friedrich Brie, who recognized the importance of knowledge of Elizabethan life generally to an understanding of the Arcadia; Emma Denkinger, who has investigated the impresa and emblems of Sidney's in connection with sixteenth-century literature and practice; and Edwin Greenlaw, who has revealed much political and autobiographical significance. Indeed, so great is the contemporaneity of the Arcadia that it is this aspect of the book which has a special interest, and Sidney himself may have derived greater pleasure in writing the so-called extraneous matter than in untangling his romance or in depicting characters.