ABSTRACT
Given the difficulties involved in portraying accurately any human experience, even one’s own, authors of biographical fiction necessarily face particular challenges when attempting to bring to life the experiences of others. Inevitably, they must come to terms with their own inability to see the world through their protagonist’s eyes. Even if they have access to their subject’s diaries and letters, as I did when I wrote Frida and Sister Teresa , they are limited by the subject’s self-representation, which may occult or distort information, as well as by historical realities that are alien to the twenty-first century. Furthermore, authors cannot always know for certain the underlying motives that trigger another’s decisions or the effects those decisions will have on others. Thus, modern authors are constantly confronted with the possibility of misrepresenting their characters, for they are acutely aware of their own subjectivity.
