COLLOQUY

THE QUESTION

RESPONSES

BACKGROUND

The value of memoirs, life histories, autobiographies, personal correspondence, and other forms of narrative writing rests not in their factual veracity per se (so-called "historical truth") but, rather, in what they reveal about writers' perspectives on their lived experience and the experiences of their families and communities. This is generally referred to as narrative truth. By definition narrative truths and historical truths each are situated and partial.

Certainly, personal documents are often profoundly revealing of historical detail. On occasion, they even provide information that alters historians'--and others'--understanding of specific historical events.

The debate about I, Rigoberta Menchú reveals, among other things, that many academic readers have a one-dimensional grasp of the possibilities and limitations of narratives as well as an ideologically driven notion of "academic standards." While it would be possible to carry on endless debate about whether this or that event actually occurred, the more important questions would seem to be: How do we understand the enterprise and purposes of crafting narratives? Can narrative truths and historical truths stand side by side in a way that acknowledges the different social, political, ethical, and rhetorical purposes served by each? What were Rigoberta Menchú's intentions in telling her story to Elisabeth Burgos-Debray? And why is Professor Stoll's unmasking of the story behind Rigoberta Menchú's story being constructed by the media as a moral and epistemological coup?

-- R. Ruth Linden, Affiliated Scholar, University of California, Berkeley (posted 1/14, 1:10 p.m., E.S.T.)

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