One thing I struggled to understand at first was the idea of “subjective truth”. When it was first brought up in class, I immediately thought, “That does not make any sense; it is a contradiction.” However, the more we unpacked what subjective truth truly is, it opened my eyes to better understand autobiographics as a whole.
I am a pretty black-and-white thinker since I look at most things as either right or wrong. I understand there is grey area, but I still err on the side of there being things that are true or not true. Subjective truth is the definition of “grey area”. It encases things that are true for the subject, regardless of whether they actually happened or can be proven. If the subject believes something to be “true”, then it is technically true for that subject. No, subjective truth cannot be scientifically validated, but it is still just as real for the subject as if one could scientifically prove it. An example of subjective truth would be someone stating, “I was born near the ocean, so that is why I am a good swimmer.” That person could have been born near the ocean and moved to the mountains when they were a month old, but that does not make that statement any less true for the person who said it. They believe it to be true whether or not one can prove it.
I am not kidding – the night after we discussed subjective truth in class, a friend of mine was talking about how her mom almost died giving birth to her and how that explains why their relationship is so rocky. Knowing there were issues at the time she was born, my friend was able to come to the conclusion that her relationship with her mom is not great because they got off to a bad start. Whether that is actually the reason or not, it makes sense to my friend and is, therefore, true for her.
When looking at the study of autobiographics, it is not about determining if the things that are recorded actually happened the way they are described. The focus is not on whether the statements made are true for everyone; the focus is why the statements are true for the subject and what importance that has to understanding the subject. I feel as though this adjustment in mindset will help me going forward as we read other texts. I will no longer read with the intent of determining the factual validity of the text, but rather the significance of the way the information is communicated and what that says about the communicator.
Sophie's Blog!!! 