The confessional as a sub-genre can be an effective form of writing. The most obvious feature being that it is essentially an autobiography. By using this genre to create a work of prose the author is able to confess his or her life's loves, sins, dreams, faults, triumphs, as well as degradations. On the other hand the reader must therefore immediately question the honesty of the speaker and the intended audience and original purpose of the confessional.
             The first documented autobiography was written by St, Augustine in the forth century and was aptly titled "Confessions" (Abrams 22.) St Augustine wrote his confession to God, stating most of his experiences as sins and asking for forgiveness. Later in the eighteenth century, Jean-Jacques Rousseau used the same title for his own autobiography. In contrast to St. Augustine's spiritual autobiography, Rousseau's confession was secular (Abrams 22) and above all actually glorified his life as what St, Augustine would call a sinner. Being autobiographies, both texts showed the self-revelation of the speakers, one through Christian conversion and the latter through human achievement. Still, the fact that they were autobiographies poses a number of important questions as to the veracity of the text.
             The first question the reader must ask is how honest is the author being through the speaker? Is he or she using a persona? When an author uses the technique of a mask or persona, he or she can seemingly distance him or herself from the actual action or story even if it is an autobiography. By doing this, the author is given more liberty to admit certain information or, for that matter, exclude information depending on what kind of persona he or she wants to create and therefore project as him or herself. Relying on the intended audience or the purpose of the confession, the author would then become what is expected. By choosing to admit only acts of ki...