"Inhabiting Multiple Worlds: Auto/Biography in an Anti/Global Age"

Report by Susan Tridgell (Australian National University)

Hong Kong was the perfect setting for this life writing conference, with its focus on multiple worlds. The city provided both the inspiration for the theme and reminders of it, as conference speakers discussed autobiographies, biographies, letters, diaries, blogs and other life writing, all focused on moving between or inhabiting multiple worlds.

Maxine Hong Kingston's keynote speech made a riveting opening to the conference. She spoke of her recent collective writing project (The Fifth Book of Peace) which had brought together soldiers who had fought on opposite sides, a male American soldier staring incredulously at the tiny girl who had been in the jungle he had tried to bomb. The tales of forgiveness and acceptance which came out of these encounters seemed extraordinary.

The other keynote speeches were equally memorable. John Eakin discussed the role of memory and narrative (and narratives of remembering) in making selves, a paper which led on to a fascinating discussion: on the merits of uncertainty, of "falling out of bed", on the energy which might power narratives from the margins of empire, on the ways in which looking at examples from literary works might over-emphasise the role of narrative in our lives. Gillian Whitlock's paper interrogated the ways in which the marketing of the life narratives of women "under the burkah" might be implicated in Orientalist attitudes, and be playing a role in the "war on terror". She pointed to images from RAWA (the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) as an alternative way of thinking about the issues involved.

Kay Schaffer's plenary paper also interrogated the ways in which life narratives can be commodified, taking the case of the film, Follow the Rabbitproof Fence. While stressing the problematic nature of the cinematography involved (which encouraged non-Indigenous audiences to identify with the Indigenous children), Schaffer noted that the framing of the film and its multiple endings allowed the possibility of differing responses, so that some viewers might respond to the gross injustices perpetuated on this community, looking beyond Molly's "triumphant" return to her home. Craig Howes used images to great effect in his speech, showing how images could be used by colonisers to depict a native Hawaiian monarch as grotesquely ugly; and then showing how differently she appeared in her own cultural context, flanked by her subjects. Jay Prosser used also used images, both to reveal and to evoke. In a lyrical, subtle paper, he discussed the "amphibious lives" of his forebears, and the cross-cultural alliances within his family.

A recent issue of Biography, "Online Lives", was notable for the nuanced ways in which it discussed these new forms of life writing. Margaretta Jolly's, Lena Karlsson's and Julie Rak's papers (on email communities, online diaries and queer blogging) pressed these issues further, looking at the connections between online and offline lives, and at the ethics of the practices involved.

As so often, the system of multiple panels meant that only some of the papers could be heard ???there were regrets, but there was also the excitement so characteristic of these IABA conferences, the sense of being part of a fast-moving field and of powerful synergies between papers (John Barbour and Gene Stelzig's panel, travelling between East and West, and Maureen Perkins and Glenn D'Cruz, speaking on mixed race, were just two instances of this).

Lisa Wong's paper on bilingual poetry from Hong Kong brought this literary form vividly to life for an international audience, while Jane Jackson's paper gave insights into the transculturation which even a brief sojourn in another land can encourage. Katarzyna Bartoszynska concentrated on one of Eva Hoffman's lesser known works, Shtetl, in a subtle and original analysis which brought out the nuances of the writing; Jill Golden gave a moving paper on inter-generational life writing and Mary Besemeres drew attention to the way in which the "Anglo" self, immersed in another language, can move to a more dialogic position.

For many of us, this conference was the last time we saw Gabriele Helms. My memory of her vivid, lively paper, and her kindness and warmth towards less experienced speakers, make it difficult to believe she is no longer with us.

Other memories are happier, less ambiguous. The kindness of the postgrad students who looked after us, guiding us around the mysteries of the campus, gently herding stray attendees towards sessions, and shepherding speakers through the intricacies of new equipment was especially notable. This kindness was reflected in the friendliness of the campus, something which put my own university to shame. If you pause, lost, on the Australian National University's campus, you are sure to be assisted by one or two passers-by. But if you pause at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, you will be surrounded in a moment by ten or twelve students, all murmuring "Can I help you?" This remains for me one of the loveliest memories from the conference. For those who would like to relive some of the occasion, or who were not able to attend, several of the papers are preserved in the latest issue of Biography 28.1 (2005) and three more appear in Life Writing 2.1 (2005).

The conference was organised by David Parker, Professor of English at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, with the assistance of Tracy Liang, Danny Leung, Zoe Chan and other postgraduate students from the English Department. It was the fourth in the series of conferences associated with the International Auto/Biography Association (IABA). To join the IABA list serve, which is run by Craig Howes, contact craighow@hawaii.edu. The next conference will be held in Mainz, Germany in July 2006. Organised by Alfred Hornung, it will be entitled 'Autobiography and Mediation'.