A Dying Husband's Final Gift: Object Inquiry in Life-Writing

• In Event: Biographical and Life Writing Approaches Across Disciplines

Abstract

Objects are important in life writing as companions in intellectual life. Objects evoke writing about significant decisions changing an entire life, connection to someone no longer in one’s life, memories of trips, friends, places, events. Objects evoke intellectual as well as emotional responses as the life writer explores how and why particular objects have such significance in their emotional lives and intellectual practice. This paper proposes an object inquiry into my deceased husband’s secret signing of our family members’ names on random objects and what seeing that handwriting evoked intellectually and emotionally, and for reconnecting with the husband I had known before the last two years of his life.

Author

• Becky M. Atkinson, University of Alabama
  Presenting Author