The Story of My Life: Fiction, Ethics, and the Self at Law

AuthorAndrea Slane
Pages387-404
387
EE

The Story of My Life: Fiction, Ethics, and the
Self at Law
 
 : In Cooper v Stockett, a plainti unsuccessfully claimed that a
central character in the 2009 novel The Help was based on her and that the
depiction caused her emotional harm. By analyzing the documents led by
the parties, this article argues that the plainti is best understood primari-
ly as a reader. From this perspective, the relationship between plainti and
defendant parallels that between reader and author on several levels. The
plainti-reader uses both textual and extratextual information to judge the
author’s moral bre, especially her level of commitment to anti-racism, and
attempts to engage the law to address what are essentially moral wrongs
linked to race and representation. Textually, how the White author deploys
literary strategies to convey moral messages within the novel generates a
sense of moral dissonance in the Black plainti-reader, and extratextual
factors, such as interviews with the author and legal arguments advanced
by the defence team, work to exacerbate that sense of dissonance, under-
girding the plainti’s conviction that she has been wronged. While the sub-
stantive law of personality rights and invasion of privacy are not particularly
sympathetic to her project, the procedural process of the lawsuit nonethe-
less provides a forum for it.
: Dans l’aaire Cooper v Stockett, la demanderesse a plaidé sans
succès que le personnage principal du roman de 2009 intitulé “The Help
était inspiré d’elle et que cette représentation de sa personne lui avait cau-
sé un préjudice émotionnel. En analysant les documents déposés en cour
388 •  
par les parties, l’auteur soutient qu’on comprend mieux la demanderesse
si on la considère d’abord et avant tout comme une lectrice. Vue sous cet
angle, la relation entre la partie demanderesse et la partie défenderesse
ressemble, à bien des égards, à celle qui unit le lecteur et l’auteur. La de-
manderesse-lectrice s’appuie sur des éléments d’information textuelle et
extratextuelle pour juger la bre morale de l’auteure, particulièrement son
degré d’appui à la lutte contre le racisme, et tente de recourir au droit pour
faire corriger ce que sont essentiellement des injustices morales associées
à la race et aux représentations. Sur le plan textuel, la façon dont l’auteure
de race blanche use de stratégies littéraires pour véhiculer des leçons mo-
rales dans la nouvelle crée, chez le demanderesse-lectrice noire, un sens
de dissonance morale, et les facteurs extratextuels, comme les entrevues
avec l’auteure et les arguments juridiques avancés par l’équipe de la défense,
contribuent à exacerber ce sentiment de dissonance, renforçant chez la de-
manderesse la conviction qu’elle a été victime d’une injustice. Bien que le
droit positif protégeant la personnalité et la vie privée n’ait pas été très favo-
rable à son projet, le processus de la poursuite judiciaire fournit néanmoins
une tribune pour ses revendications.
A. INTRODUCTION
“When I was writing this book, I never thought anyone else would read it,
so I didn’t get real creative with the names . . . . I just used people I knew.
Some of them aren’t talking to me right now, but I feel like they’ll come
around.”1 (Kathryn Stockett, author of The Help)
“I think she is just a racist. She claims she respects black people but she just
ran all over me.”2
1 Jennifer Brett, “Peach Buzz” Atlanta Journal-Constitution (26 October 2009). The same
journalist repeated the quote in a 2011 article: Jennifer Brett, “The Buzz: Kathryn Stock-
ett, Author of ‘The Help,’ Sued by Former Family Employee” Atlanta Journal-Constitution
(18 February 2011).
2 Sharon Churcher, “Her Family Hired Me as a Maid for 12 Years but Then She Stole My
Life and Made it a Disney Movie” Mail Online (4 September 2011), online: Daily Mail
www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2033369/Her-family-hired-maid-12-years-stole-life-
Disney-movie.html, quoting Ablene Cooper plainti in lawsuit against Stockett.

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