The Uses of Authenticity: Hemingway and the Literary Field, 1926–1936

Müller, Timo

doi:10.2979/jml.2009.33.1.28

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…For example, drawing on Lionel Trilling's 1974 work Sincerity and Authenticity, which 'provides starting points for an inquiry into the self-reflexive enactment of authenticity in and through' (Müller 2009, p. 30) literary works, Müller explores these issues in relation to Hemmingway's early writings. Here, he emphasises that one key-aspect of the authenticity inherent in the author's work is the 'self-reflexive approach' of his writing (Müller 2009). We can argue that this self-reflexivity is also evident in Edward and the ways in which he both tells his stories and presents himself as storyteller.…”

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confidence: 98%

Tall Tales—Myth and Honesty in Tim Burton’s Big Fish (2003)

Magerstädt

2022

Humanities

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Questions about the relationship between truth and fiction have a long history in philosophical thinking, going back at least as far as Plato. They re-emerge in more recent philosophical debates on cinema and are powerfully illustrated in Tim Burton’s 2003 film Big Fish, which narrates the story of Edward and his son Will, who tries to uncover the truth behind his father’s tall tales. Will’s desire for honesty—for facts rather stories—has led to a considerable rift between them. While the film extols the beauty of storytelling and the power of myth, it also raises questions about the relationship between honesty and myth, fact and fiction. This article explores these themes from a multidisciplinary perspective by drawing on diverse sources, including Friedrich Nietzsche’s Vom Nutzen und Nachteil der Historie für das Leben/On Truth and Lies in an Nonmoral Sense (1873), contemporary philosophical writings on fiction, the virtues of truthfulness, honesty and sincerity, as well as ideas on memoir and creative life writing drawn from literary studies. Overall, it argues for the positive, creative potential of storytelling and defends the idea that larger truths may often be found behind embellished facts and deceptive fictions. The final section expands this discussion to explore cinema’s power to create what Nietzsche called ‘honesty by myth’. Through the variety of background sources, the article also aims to demonstrate how ideas from multiple disciplinary contexts can be brought together to stimulate fruitful conversations on cinema, myth and the power of storytelling.

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confidence: 98%

Tall Tales—Myth and Honesty in Tim Burton’s Big Fish (2003)

Magerstädt

2022

Humanities

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“…), even in the universities few people can come up with a name or a work that has brought the concept of authenticity to public attention. 104 It is perhaps the pervasiveness of the notion of authenticity that enables it to elude singular definition; or it may also be due to its longevitydebates around authenticity have attracted Western philosophers since Aristotle. Charles Lindholm provides extensive discussion of notions of authenticity, 105 but for our purposes it might suffice to say that it has overlapping meanings including: sincere, true, honest, absolute, basic, essential, genuine, ideal, natural, original, perfect, pure, real, and right.…”

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confidence: 99%

Performing selves: The trope of authenticity and Robert Wilson's stage production ofI La Galigo

Davies

2015

J. Southeast Asian stud.

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In 2010, La Galigo, a Bugis mythological epic describing the founding of the human world, was included in UNESCO's Memory of the World register. This accolade again brought La Galigo into the international spotlight, as had occurred when Robert Wilson's stage playI La Galigo, based on this epic, debuted in Singapore in 2004. Wilson's production received acclaim and critique, with reviews primarily focusing on his ability to achieve an authentic representation of Bugis identity and their past. These responses raise questions around the presupposition that there is an authentic Bugis identity and past that can be publicly recreated. This article analyses the concept of authenticity through reviews of Wilson's production and the work of key theorists to show that for many people, authenticity is achievable and of critical importance in underpinning any sense of a unified and singular ethnic identity, while for others, identity is always already a mix of different global influences and as such is either irrelevant, or liberated from a sense of a singular heritage.

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The Uses of Authenticity: Hemingway and the Literary Field, 1926–1936

Cited by 2 publications

References 9 publications

Tall Tales—Myth and Honesty in Tim Burton’s Big Fish (2003)

Tall Tales—Myth and Honesty in Tim Burton’s Big Fish (2003)

Performing selves: The trope of authenticity and Robert Wilson's stage production ofI La Galigo

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