AustLit

'In life writing studies. research relating to privacy tends to concentrate on the ethics of representing other people's lives. What is discussed less frequently are the ethics and the effects on life writers of representing their own Ines. There seems to be an assumption that because someone has chosen to write about their experiences, their private details are fair game: as Claire Lynch puts it, writing about one's own life is, of course, potentially exposing, but at least the revelations are self-inflicted' (13). Maureen Perkins observes that 'the autobiographical imperative implies that everything must be told. that secrets are the equivalent of a betrayal of the autobiographical pact, and that an author should hold nothing back' (271). This rhetoric—that if you're not revealing yourself fully, you may be doing your readers and writing a disservice—is often accompanied by the ostensibly admirable sentiment that life writers should strive for honesty regarding their mistakes and failings. However, it also tends towards oversimplifying what it might mean to write the truth' about one's life. Writir4 based on real experience will only ever be a partial representation of it and, as Blake Morrison suggests, confessional writers 'make conscious and considered choices about what to reveal' (206). For many life writers. these choices will be based, at least in part, on balancing self- revelation and autobiographical restraint.' (Introduction)