Ethical Representation In Helen Garner's The Spare Room

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Authors and writers alike must always consider the ethical implications of how they represent people, and topics. They must consider how their representations can be perceived by the persons represented, and by the general audience reading the text. What, however, is ethical, as there are many different ethical theories that try to explain and give a definitive answer on what is right and wrong? For the purpose of this essay, what is an ethical representation will be defined by the level of respect given to the subjects, the truthfulness of the information portrayed and the motives behind the representation. Helen Garners short story The Spare room, is a text that can be analysed to assess how taboo topics such as death has been represented …show more content…

The genre of writing is an aspect that has to be taken into consideration when analysing Garner’s story. Auto-fiction is a genre that blurs the lines between fiction and non fiction. In examples such as Seinfeld (1989-98), the overall premise is based on non-fiction, however the story itself is a fictionalised version of real life events, often dramatised or comically edited (Worthington, 2017, p. 471). Helen Garner’s The Spare Room is auto-fiction, meaning that the events are based on real events that happened in Garner’s life, however has been edited to suit the page. There in itself lies an ethical issue: how much and what has been edited out? The Genre of auto-fiction does not portray the truth, only partial truth, and it is up to the author as to what stays. However the question begs, is it ethical to be able to decide when to tell the truth and when to lie, and does that amount to a truthful therefore ethical representation of character? Said by Worthington (2017) auto-fiction “inevitably and deliberately lead readers to

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