Biography?

In the article "Autobiography: Does it have a future? Wystan Curnow writes about creative forms of life writing that open up our definition of self and the myths of identity. Through experimenting with the form itself in life writing .....
An example workin the article is by poet Lyn Hejinian called My Life (1980). Written in her 37th year, it has 37 sentences in each of its 37 chapters containing fragments of recollection. In discussing Hejinian's approach, Curnow writes; "one's memories do take place in the present, are largely fragments, and the narratives that link them in most biographies are questionable fictions and rationalizations which commonly have use for what is most alive to us from our part." (p20, my italics) In Audre Lorde's Zami, you could argue the choices of memories she reflects on rationalize her current position and perspective, but certainly not that those moments don't have use for whats most alive in us (or Lorde).
Curnow's interest in Hejinian's piece is in its ability to "more faithfully represent our experience of experience"(p20) and in doing so includes the reader to set their own associations going, creating "possiblities for outward connection" (p20).

The newly defined genre; biomythography of Zami can be interpreted in multiple ways. My first instinct it to recognize her prose narrative as inserting herself within the myths she wears as an outsider. She places herself directly into her experience of an event, relying very little on presenting detailed historical facts or dogmatic statements to validate her position. For example; "Muriel radiated a quiet self-knowledge which I mistook for self acceptance." (Zami, p 186) The statement that Muriel radiated self knowledge is not a legitimate fact but a personal interpretation, which is common throughout the book.
The tone of Zami always lets me know she is speaking from personal authority (often because it reflects her outsider position) and that over the course of the book seems to build like a mantra to the importance of that position in finding and asserting your own place.
During certain sections of Zami, Lorde includes older poems written from the time she is reflecting on, which serves as a reminder that she's writing from her present understanding of the past. This is also a more accurate representation of how memory works in the first place. Highlighting the process of how build our positions I think gives the reader more opportunities to connect.