The autobiographical narrative between care and liberation. The life of Janet Frame.

Abstract

?As a historical source, the autobiography provides a number of information – that are relevant from a historical and educational point of view - concerning lifestyles, educational models, material life, collective attitudes and behaviors as well as individual experiences in a given context and time in history. In its original meaning of writing about themselves, it is also a path for identity or more simply a practice of self-care. In this essay it is analyzed, in that dual perspective, the autobiography of Janet Frame, the New Zealander contemporary novelist, whose narrative has become an important source of historical and educational information related to the history of women. This latter area of knowledge is still relatively unknown because of poor visibility or difficulties in finding new sources. In recent years, however, the availability of sources concerning women's writings is expanding dramatically, thus allowing researchers to give life to new epistemological frontiers.