The Unreliable Narrator as a Precedent to the Post-Truth Era: Subjective Personal Memory in the Literary Autobiographies of Eudora Welty and Tom Robbins

Trying to find the roots of the current post-truth era, one possible path of origin presents itself when it comes to the literary tradition: the unreliable narrator. How does this phenomenon project itself in such a particular place between fact and fiction, occupied solely by literary autobiographies? Eudora Welty and Tom Robbins, two prominent 20th century literary personas, provide a detailed account of their journey towards self-realization in two connected, yet very different ways. Their memoir and autobiography provides a detailed map of this journey. We can hence speak of positive trauma when it comes to recollection of successful literary careers. Imagination, memory and choice all play an important part in this unique narratives’ creative process. Understanding the relationships between these elements provides even more understanding when it comes to unreliability and our own perception of reality. What are the specific details of memory the authors put down on paper in order to make sense of their creative lives? How do we spot their importance? What role does memory play in the creative process of these authors? How do they approach imagination? What is their relationship with their own narrators and protagonists, a.k.a. themselves? Can we trust it? Dare we trust it? And if so, how do we do it as readers? All these questions are to be addressed and discussed in the following article.

A Representational Account of Olfactory Experience

Seattle rain smelled different from New Orleans rain…. New Orleans rain smelled of sulfur and hibiscus, trumpet metal, thunder, and sweat. Seattle rain, the widespread rain of the Great Northwest, smelled of green ice and sumi ink, of geology and silence and minnow breath.— Tom Robbins, Jitterbug PerfumeMuch of the philosophical literature on perception has focused on vision. This is not surprising, given that vision holds for us a certain prestige. Our visual experience is incredibly rich, offering up a mosaic of apparent three-dimensional objects. For this reason, it is commonplace to suppose that visual experience is world-directed, with the view taking its most popular form in the representational, or content, view. World-directed views contrast with what we might call subjectivist views — views according to which experiences are raw feels or mere sensations.

Moods Of Panurge

The foregoing article is about the modeling of translation style for the English translation of Rabelais on the work of Tom Robbins and Philip Roth, two modern American writers who approximate Rabelais in attitude and technique. Their tradition and linguistic habits, especially their syntactical and lexical preferences, are discussed. Especially important are the lessons to be learned from an examination of the leading modern English translators of Rabelais, Samuel Putnam and Burton Raffel, and the particular problems posed by the French sixteenth century, its humanism and rebelliousness. These are chiefly expressed by the character of Panurge, whose psychological and rhetorical moods form the basis of this essay. Résumé L'article traite du modelage du style de traduction pour la traduction anglaise de Rabelais à l'aide des ouvrages de Tom Robbins et Philip Roth, deux écrivains américains modernes qui se rapprochent de Rabelais par leur attitude et leur technique. Il s'agit d'une discussion de leurs traductions et habitudes linguistiques, notamment de leurs préférences syntaxiques et lexicales. Il est spécialement important de tirer des leçons de l'examen des traducteurs anglais modernes et renommés de Rabelais, à savoir, Samuel Putnam et Burton Raffel, et de souligner les problèmes spécifiques et particuliers posés par le français du 16ème siècle, son humanisme et son caractère rebelle. Ceux-ci sont principalement exprimés par le personnage de Panurge, dont les variations psychologiques et rhétoriques sont à la base de cet article.