Professor Sue Vice Photo: SUPPLIED/University of Sheffield
The current controversy over the authenticity of Raynor Winn's The Salt Path has given rise to a broader discussion about the nature and prevalence of literary hoaxes. Should a memoir be held to the same standard of accuracy as an autobiography? How do we distinguish fact from personal truth, perception from pure fraud?
Professor Sue Vice is a lecturer at the University of Sheffield's School of English and the author of Textual Deceptions: False Memoirs and Literary Hoaxes in the Contemporary Era. Sue explains to Perlina she became interested in this field after herself falling victim to a literary hoax as a reader, many years ago.
Books in a bookshelf. Photo: Unsplash / Jessica Ruscello
