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ckosarek's picture

Meaning over fact? Can meaning be fact?

 Perhaps the goal of memoir nonfiction is not to tell a "true" story at all, but to relay a cohesive truth that represents humanity collectively. Hampl states that, "[w]e must acquiesce to our experience and our gift to transform experience into meaning" (32), suggesting that meaning has far greater weight and trustworthiness than personal anecdotes. Because we have to accept that any personal account of an event is colored with perception, maybe the "truth" of a nonfiction work is not a cut-and-dry account of what happened on such-and-such a date, but rather the implication of personal perception as applied to a greater audience. 

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