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Annual Bibliography of Works about Life Writing, 2018–2019
Books
Aarons, Victoria. Holocaust Graphic Narratives: Generation, Trauma, and Memory. Rutgers UP, 2019.
Applies memory as a controlling trope to the analysis of the work of an intergenerational selection of graphic novelists and illustrators, making clear how they extend the traumatic narrative of the Holocaust into the present, and in doing so, give voice to survival in the wake of unrecoverable loss.
Applies memory as a controlling trope to the analysis of the work of an intergenerational selection of graphic novelists and illustrators, making clear how they extend the traumatic narrative of the Holocaust into the present, and in doing so, give voice to survival in the wake of unrecoverable loss.
Andrews, William L. Slavery and Class in the American South: A Generation of Slave Narrative Testimony, 1840–1865. Oxford UP, 2019.
Presents a comprehensive picture of social strata and class differentiation among slaves through the use of previously overlooked antebellum African American slave narratives.
Presents a comprehensive picture of social strata and class differentiation among slaves through the use of previously overlooked antebellum African American slave narratives.
Bennett, Nolan. The Claims of Experience: Autobiography and American Democracy. Oxford UP, 2019.
Theorizes what makes autobiography political with democratic potential by examining autobiography from five distinct political figures and time periods in American history, combining interpretive textual analysis with historical research and democratic theory.
Theorizes what makes autobiography political with democratic potential by examining autobiography from five distinct political figures and time periods in American history, combining interpretive textual analysis with historical research and democratic theory.
Boon, Sonja. What the Oceans Remember: Searching for Belonging and Home. Wilfrid Laurier UP, 2019.
Combines research and reflection to reveal the multiplicity of identities and origins that shape a personal history.
Combines research and reflection to reveal the multiplicity of identities and origins that shape a personal history.
Bost, Suzanne. Shared Selves: Latinx Memoir and Ethical Alternatives to Humanism. U of Illinois P, 2019.
Draws on feminist and posthumanist ideas to explore how three contemporary memoirists, John Rechy, Aurora Levins Morales, and Gloria E. Anzaldúa, decenter the self and offer a way to undertand the interconnectedness of life.
Draws on feminist and posthumanist ideas to explore how three contemporary memoirists, John Rechy, Aurora Levins Morales, and Gloria E. Anzaldúa, decenter the self and offer a way to undertand the interconnectedness of life.
Boyer, Anne. The Undying: Pain, Vulnerability, Mortality, Medicine, Art, Time, Dreams, Data, Exhaustion, Cancer, and Care. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019.
Explores the mediation of the experience of illness and dives into a long literary line of women writing about their own illnesses and ongoing deaths.
Explores the mediation of the experience of illness and dives into a long literary line of women writing about their own illnesses and ongoing deaths.
Civale, Susan. Romantic Women's Life Writing: Reputation and Afterlife. Manchester UP, 2019.
Argues that life writing shapes authorial reputation and afterlife, and reveals the innovative contributions of Frances Burney, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Robinson, and Mary Hays to the genre of life writing in the long nineteenth century.
Argues that life writing shapes authorial reputation and afterlife, and reveals the innovative contributions of Frances Burney, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Robinson, and Mary Hays to the genre of life writing in the long nineteenth century.
Cohan, Noah. We Average Unbeautiful Watchers: Fan Narratives and the Reading of American Sports. U of Nebraska P, 2019.
Critically reads stories of sports fans' self-definition across genres to demonstrate how unscripted sporting entertainments function as identity-building narratives.
Critically reads stories of sports fans' self-definition across genres to demonstrate how unscripted sporting entertainments function as identity-building narratives.
Couser, G. Thomas, and Susannah B. Mintz, editors. Disability Experiences: Memoirs, Autobiographies, and Other Personal Narratives. 2 vols., Macmillan Reference, 2019.
A reference volume containing individual essays on 200 narratives of illness and disability from early antecedents to contemporary memoirs written in or translated into English.
A reference volume containing individual essays on 200 narratives of illness and disability from early antecedents to contemporary memoirs written in or translated into English.
Demers, Patricia. Women's Writing in Canada. U of Toronto P, 2019.
Explores how the questioning, disruptive feminist practices in fiction, filmmaking, poetry, songwriting, drama, memoir, autobiography, comic books, and cookbooks reveal the tensions of colonial society and the transformation of cultural life in Canada.
Explores how the questioning, disruptive feminist practices in fiction, filmmaking, poetry, songwriting, drama, memoir, autobiography, comic books, and cookbooks reveal the tensions of colonial society and the transformation of cultural life in Canada.
Eakin, Paul John. Vivendo Autobiograficamente: A Construção de Nossa Identidade Narrativa. Translated by Ricardo Santhiago, Letra e Voz, 2019.
Portuguese translation of Living Autobiographically: How We Create Identity in Narrative.
Portuguese translation of Living Autobiographically: How We Create Identity in Narrative.
Ehlers, Nadine, and Shiloh Krupar. Deadly Biocultures: The Ethics of Life-Making. U of Minnesota P, 2019.
Examines affirmations in the biocultures of cancer, race-based health, fatness, aging, and the afterlife with a focus on specific practices and technologies that affirm life, but also shows how they engender a politics of death and erasure.
Examines affirmations in the biocultures of cancer, race-based health, fatness, aging, and the afterlife with a focus on specific practices and technologies that affirm life, but also shows how they engender a politics of death and erasure.
Gilmore, Leigh, and Elizabeth Marshall. Witnessing Girlhood: Toward an Intersectional Tradition of Life Writing. Fordham UP, 2019.
Centers an intersectional testimonial history of women of color writing about sexual and racist violence, and furthers ethical engagements with representations of vulnerability, childhood, and collective witness.
Centers an intersectional testimonial history of women of color writing about sexual and racist violence, and furthers ethical engagements with representations of vulnerability, childhood, and collective witness.
Hartoonian, Harry. The Unspoken as Heritage: The Armenian Genocide and Its Unaccounted Lives. Duke UP, 2019.
Meditates on loss, inheritance, and survival, and demonstrates how the genocidal past never leaves the present, even in its silence.
Meditates on loss, inheritance, and survival, and demonstrates how the genocidal past never leaves the present, even in its silence.
Henderson, Desirée. How to Read a Diary: Critical Contexts and Interpretive Strategies for 21st-Century Readers. Routledge, 2019.
Offers a new critical vocabulary for analyzing diary manuscripts, identifying the conventions of diary writing, examining the impact of technology on the genre, and presenting the myriad personal and political motives that drive diary writing.
Offers a new critical vocabulary for analyzing diary manuscripts, identifying the conventions of diary writing, examining the impact of technology on the genre, and presenting the myriad personal and political motives that drive diary writing.
Humphreys, Lee. The Qualified Self: Social Media and the Accounting of Everyday Life. MIT P, 2018.
Argues that people have used media to "chronicle" their lives for several centuries to create the "qualified self" in order to offer a greater understanding of the representations of selves people create to be consumed.
Argues that people have used media to "chronicle" their lives for several centuries to create the "qualified self" in order to offer a greater understanding of the representations of selves people create to be consumed.
Ing, Tiffany Lani. Reclaiming Kalākaua: Nineteenth Century Perspectives on a Hawaiian Sovereign. U of Hawai'i P, 2019.
Examines ka Mō'ī David La'amea Kamananakapu Mahinulani Nalaiaehuokalani Lumialani Kalākaua in English and Hawaiian language newspapers, books, travelogues, and other materials published in the United States, abroad, and in Hawai'i during his reign.
Examines ka Mō'ī David La'amea Kamananakapu Mahinulani Nalaiaehuokalani Lumialani Kalākaua in English and Hawaiian language newspapers, books, travelogues, and other materials published in the United States, abroad, and in Hawai'i during his reign.
Jensen, Meg. The Art and Science of Trauma and the Autobiographical: Negotiated Truths. Palgrave Macmillan, Palgrave Studies in Life Writing, 2019.
Fosters discussion and expands understanding of the complex relationship between the art and science of the autobiographical in order to add to critical and scientific debates on the nature of PTSD, and enhance the development of effective therapies for practical application.
Fosters discussion and expands understanding of the complex relationship between the art and science of the autobiographical in order to add to critical and scientific debates on the nature of PTSD, and enhance the development of effective therapies for practical application.
Køhlert, Frederik Byrn. Serial Selves: Identity and Representation in Autobiographical Comics. Rutgers UP, 2019.
Provides detailed formal analysis to show that the highly personal and hand-drawn aesthetics of comics can help artists push against established narrative and visual conventions, and invent new ways of seeing and being seen.
Provides detailed formal analysis to show that the highly personal and hand-drawn aesthetics of comics can help artists push against established narrative and visual conventions, and invent new ways of seeing and being seen.
Mackie, Gregory. Beautiful Untrue Things: Forging Oscar Wilde's Extraordinary Afterlife. U of Toronto P, 2019.
Argues that fraudulent authorship in Oscar Wilde's literary afterlife may be reimagined as a form of performance and imaginative world-making, which contributed to Wilde's continued cultural impact.
Argues that fraudulent authorship in Oscar Wilde's literary afterlife may be reimagined as a form of performance and imaginative world-making, which contributed to Wilde's continued cultural impact.
Maguire, Emma. Girls, Autobiography, Media: Gender and Self-Mediation in Digital Economies. Palgrave Macmillan, Palgrave Studies in Life Writing, 2018.
Argues that girls and young women stake a claim on public space and assert the right to create and distribute their own representations of girlhood by using digital technologies.
Argues that girls and young women stake a claim on public space and assert the right to create and distribute their own representations of girlhood by using digital technologies.
Marcus, Sharon. The Drama of Celebrity. Princeton UP, 2019.
Suggests that journalists, the public, and celebrities themselves all compete, passionately and expertly, to shape the stories we tell about celebrities and fans, by tracing celebrity culture back to its nineteenth-century roots.
Suggests that journalists, the public, and celebrities themselves all compete, passionately and expertly, to shape the stories we tell about celebrities and fans, by tracing celebrity culture back to its nineteenth-century roots.
Martínez, David. Life of the Indigenous Mind: Vine Deloria Jr. and the Birth of the Red Power Movement. U of Nebraska P, 2019.
Examines Vine Deloria Jr.'s contribution to the Red Power Movement by focusing on his assertion that tribes are entitled to national sovereignty—legally, politically, and culturally.
Examines Vine Deloria Jr.'s contribution to the Red Power Movement by focusing on his assertion that tribes are entitled to national sovereignty—legally, politically, and culturally.
Mendez, James G. A Great Sacrifice: Northern Black Soldiers, Their Families, and the Experience of Civil War (The North's Civil War). Fordham UP, 2019.
Examines the effects of the Civil War on northern black families using letters from northern black women addressed to their family and friends in the Union military.
Examines the effects of the Civil War on northern black families using letters from northern black women addressed to their family and friends in the Union military.
Micir, Melanie. The Passion Projects: Modernist Women, Intimate Archives, Unfinished Lives. Princeton UP, 2019.
Examines how modernist women writers used biographical projects to resist their exclusion from literary history.
Examines how modernist women writers used biographical projects to resist their exclusion from literary history.
Miller, Nancy K. My Brilliant Friends: Our Lives in Feminism. Columbia UP, 2019.
Describes the author's friendships with three well-known scholars and literary critics, Carolyn Heilbrun, Diane Middlebrook, and Naomi Schor, and reveals how feminism illuminates the political importance of personal experience, and continues to reshape American society.
Describes the author's friendships with three well-known scholars and literary critics, Carolyn Heilbrun, Diane Middlebrook, and Naomi Schor, and reveals how feminism illuminates the political importance of personal experience, and continues to reshape American society.
Moulin, Joanny, Nguyen Phuong Ngoc, and Yannick Gouchan, editors. La Vérité d'Une Vie: Études sur la Véridiction en Biographie. Honoré Champion, 2019.
These essays offer a pragmatic departure from the observation that the main obstacle to a theory of biography as a distinct literary genre is the modern prejudice that everything is fiction, or at least that all writing necessarily comes from it.
These essays offer a pragmatic departure from the observation that the main obstacle to a theory of biography as a distinct literary genre is the modern prejudice that everything is fiction, or at least that all writing necessarily comes from it.
Murphy, Laura T. The New Slave Narrative: The Battle Over Representations of Contemporary Slavery. Columbia UP, 2019.
Argues that the slave narrative gained new currency for survivors of modern slavery, in the context of the memoir boom, post-9/11 anti-Islamic sentiment, and conservative family values politics, revealing a survivor-centered counterdiscourse of collaboration and change.
Argues that the slave narrative gained new currency for survivors of modern slavery, in the context of the memoir boom, post-9/11 anti-Islamic sentiment, and conservative family values politics, revealing a survivor-centered counterdiscourse of collaboration and change.
Nyambi, Oliver. Life-Writing from the Margins in Zimbabwe: Versions and Subversions of Crisis. Routledge, 2019.
Demonstrates that life writing on the nature and sociopolitics of the Zimbabwean crisis (c. 2000–2009) presents counter-discursive versions of the crisis and addresses the experiences and negotiations of power in the context of crisis and the postcoloniality of power.
Demonstrates that life writing on the nature and sociopolitics of the Zimbabwean crisis (c. 2000–2009) presents counter-discursive versions of the crisis and addresses the experiences and negotiations of power in the context of crisis and the postcoloniality of power.
Parker, Ian. Psychoanalysis, Clinic, and Context: Subjectivity, History, and Autobiography. Routledge, 2019.
Explores the development and current practice of psychoanalysis through an autobiographical narrative to illuminate the internal shape of this cultural phenomenon and clinical work.
Explores the development and current practice of psychoanalysis through an autobiographical narrative to illuminate the internal shape of this cultural phenomenon and clinical work.
Roach, Rebecca. Literature and the Rise of the Interview. Oxford UP, 2018.
Excavates what might be called a "poetics" of the interview form and method, covering more than a century and four continents, and considers what examining interviews might tell us about conceptions of literature, authorship, and reading communities in modernity.
Excavates what might be called a "poetics" of the interview form and method, covering more than a century and four continents, and considers what examining interviews might tell us about conceptions of literature, authorship, and reading communities in modernity.
Rottmann, Susan Beth. In Pursuit of Belonging: Forging an Ethical Life in European-Turkish Spaces. Berghahn Books, 2019.
Tells a woman named Leyla's story to convey Turkish migrants' struggle for understanding, intimacy, and appreciation when they return from Germany to their Turkish homeland.
Tells a woman named Leyla's story to convey Turkish migrants' struggle for understanding, intimacy, and appreciation when they return from Germany to their Turkish homeland.
Santos, Jorge. Graphic Memories of the Civil Rights Movement: Reframing History in Comics. U of Texas P, 2019.
Discusses five graphic novels and graphic memoirs about the civil rights movement that create a more complete history, and allows readers to participate in a process of collective memory-making by which history is (re)told, (re)produced, and (re)narrativized.
Discusses five graphic novels and graphic memoirs about the civil rights movement that create a more complete history, and allows readers to participate in a process of collective memory-making by which history is (re)told, (re)produced, and (re)narrativized.
Storin, Bradley K. Self-Portrait in Three Colors: Gregory of Nazianzus's Epistolary Autobiography. U of California P, 2019.
Views Gregory's published collection of letters as an autobiography in epistolary form and as a means of governing his authorial image as well as his provincial and ecclesiastical legacy.
Views Gregory's published collection of letters as an autobiography in epistolary form and as a means of governing his authorial image as well as his provincial and ecclesiastical legacy.
Swann, Karen. Lives of the Dead Poets: Keats, Shelley, Coleridge. Fordham UP, 2019.
Shows how biographical fascination creates poets' afterlives and offers the possiblity of poetry's survival by binding the irrecuperable singularity of the poet-function to readers.
Shows how biographical fascination creates poets' afterlives and offers the possiblity of poetry's survival by binding the irrecuperable singularity of the poet-function to readers.
Tillman, Kacy Dowd. Stripped and Script: Loyalist Women Writers of the American Revolution. U of Massachusetts P, 2019.
Argues that the personal letters and journals of loyalist women of the American Revolution, which they then used as vehicles for public engagement and defense against violation, are the key to recovering their voices.
Argues that the personal letters and journals of loyalist women of the American Revolution, which they then used as vehicles for public engagement and defense against violation, are the key to recovering their voices.
Utell, Janine. Literary Couples and Twentieth Century Life Writing. Bloomsbury, 2019.
Draws on narrative theory and the study of intimacy and affect to consider the ethics of reading relationships in the modern period, and discusses how late-modernist writers become subjects to significant others, a change that becomes narrative within their works.
Draws on narrative theory and the study of intimacy and affect to consider the ethics of reading relationships in the modern period, and discusses how late-modernist writers become subjects to significant others, a change that becomes narrative within their works.
Worthington, Marjorie. The Story of "Me": Contemporary American Autofiction. U of Nebraska P, 2018.
Placing autofiction in American literary movements in the French literary context demonstrates that autofiction's rise serves as a barometer of American literature, from modernist authorial effacement to postmodern literary self-consciousness.
Placing autofiction in American literary movements in the French literary context demonstrates that autofiction's rise serves as a barometer of American literature, from modernist authorial effacement to postmodern literary self-consciousness.
Edited Collections and Special Issues
19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, no. 27, 2018, "Silence in the Archives: Censorship and Suppression in Women's Life Writing."
Wolf, Alexis. "Introduction: Reading Silence in the Long Nineteenth-Century Women's Life Writing Archive." n.p.
Proposes creative and interdisciplinary approaches for reading the origins, uses, and consequences of silences in the nineteenth-century women's life writing archive to understand how the past has been mediated and inscribed.
Proposes creative and interdisciplinary approaches for reading the origins, uses, and consequences of silences in the nineteenth-century women's life writing archive to understand how the past has been mediated and inscribed.
Denlinger, Elizabeth Campbell. "Horrid Mysteries of Cl Cl 26: A Tale of Mothers and Daughters." n.p.
Delves into inflections and physical evidence to suggest that Claire Clairmont wrote the letters, previously ascribed to her mother, which narrate some of the most dramatic and painful episodes of Claire's life in order to reconstruct her identity as a writer.
Delves into inflections and physical evidence to suggest that Claire Clairmont wrote the letters, previously ascribed to her mother, which narrate some of the most dramatic and painful episodes of Claire's life in order to reconstruct her identity as a writer.
Di Loreto, Sonia. "Margaret Fuller's Archive: Absence, Erasure, and Critical Work." n.p.
Advocates for the use of digital humanities to recover a cosmopolitan, organic, and productive life for the Margaret Fuller archive.
Advocates for the use of digital humanities to recover a cosmopolitan, organic, and productive life for the Margaret Fuller archive.
Gleadle, Kathryn. "Silence, Dissent, and Affective Relations in the Juvenile Diaries of Eva Knatchbull-Hugessen (1861–1895)." n.p.
Argues for new archival hermeneutics that can reveal the cultural agency of young diarists and the hidden dynamics involved in constructing their diaries.
Argues for new archival hermeneutics that can reveal the cultural agency of young diarists and the hidden dynamics involved in constructing their diaries.
Rose, Lucy Ella. "Christina Liddell, the Forgotten Fraser Tytler Sister: Censorship and Suppression in Mary Watts's Life Writing." n.p.
Explores filial bonds, conjugal arrangements, and eroticized relationships in the long nineteenth century through archival analysis of the unconventional triangular relationship between George Frederic Watts, his wife Mary, and her sister Christina Liddell.
Explores filial bonds, conjugal arrangements, and eroticized relationships in the long nineteenth century through archival analysis of the unconventional triangular relationship between George Frederic Watts, his wife Mary, and her sister Christina Liddell.
Hunt, Karen. "Censorship and Self-Censorship: Revisiting the Belt Case in the Making of Dora Montefiore (1851–1933)." n.p.
Uses archival sources to reconstruct the Belt Case to explore the role censorship played in Montefiore's self-representation and the dilemmas this presented to her biographer.
Uses archival sources to reconstruct the Belt Case to explore the role censorship played in Montefiore's self-representation and the dilemmas this presented to her biographer.
Robertson, Lisa C., and Flore Janssen. "The Harkives: Cataloguing the Coherence and Complexity of Margaret Harkness/John Law." n.p.
Confronts the complexity of reconstructing Harkness's identity in view of her deliberately distinct public and private personas and the difficulties involved in assembling a coherent archive that recognizes the intricacies of her identity and work over time.
Confronts the complexity of reconstructing Harkness's identity in view of her deliberately distinct public and private personas and the difficulties involved in assembling a coherent archive that recognizes the intricacies of her identity and work over time.
de Vera, Samantha. "'We the ladies … have been deprived of a voice': Uncovering Black Women's Lives through the Colored Conventions Archive." n.p.
Investigates the Colored Convention's archives to reveal how Black women challenged and expanded the parameters of Black womanhood in the nineteenth century.
Investigates the Colored Convention's archives to reveal how Black women challenged and expanded the parameters of Black womanhood in the nineteenth century.
Newey, Katherine. "Afterword." n.p.
Reflects on the challenge of researching comparatively obscure women and argues for the exercise of the historian's sympathetic imagination.
Reflects on the challenge of researching comparatively obscure women and argues for the exercise of the historian's sympathetic imagination.
a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, vol. 33, no. 3, 2018, special issue on "Lives Outside the Lines: Gender and Genre," edited by Eva C. Karpinski and Ricia Anne Chansky.
Karpinski, Eva C., and Ricia Anne Chansky. "Finding Fragments: Intersections of Gender and Genre in Life Narratives." pp. 505–15.
Introduces the articles in this special issue that emerged from the IABA Chapter of the Americas conference at York University in Toronto in May 2017.
Introduces the articles in this special issue that emerged from the IABA Chapter of the Americas conference at York University in Toronto in May 2017.
Kadar, Marlene. "Cultivating Gullibility." pp. 517–22.
Considers the epistemic and aesthetic generativity of trauma and illness.
Considers the epistemic and aesthetic generativity of trauma and illness.
Smith, Sidonie, and Marlene Kadar. "The Urgency of Writing a Life: An Interview." pp. 523–31.
Sidonie Smith interviews Marlene Kadar.
Sidonie Smith interviews Marlene Kadar.
Karpinski, Eva C. "The Work of Marlene Kadar." p. 533.
Describes forum papers that consider Kadar's influence from different perspectives.
Describes forum papers that consider Kadar's influence from different perspectives.
Warley, Linda. "Mar and Me: Following the Traces." pp. 534–41.
Underlines the inclusiveness, ethics, and empathy of Kadar's scholarship.
Underlines the inclusiveness, ethics, and empathy of Kadar's scholarship.
Rak, Julie. "Marlene Kadar's Life Writing: Feminist Theory Outside the Lines." pp. 541–49.
Identifies Kadar's stance as "deeply feminist" and indebted to standpoint theory.
Identifies Kadar's stance as "deeply feminist" and indebted to standpoint theory.
Galbus, Julia. "Revising What's Past: Compassion in the Work of Marlene Kadar and Louise DeSalvo." pp. 549–57.
Draws attention to the ethical challenges of working on morally compromised or objectionable subjects of archival memory.
Draws attention to the ethical challenges of working on morally compromised or objectionable subjects of archival memory.
Taylor, Patrick. "Escape from the Colonial Asylum." pp. 557–68.
Excavates the silenced family history linking colonial Barbados to Toronto.
Excavates the silenced family history linking colonial Barbados to Toronto.
Morra, Linda. "Inside the Cover, Outside the Archive: Reading the Dispersal of Jane Rule's Library and Modes of Female Sociability." pp. 568–78.
Calls for expanding the queer archive ofJane Rule to include paratextual elements preserved in the writer's dispersed library.
Calls for expanding the queer archive ofJane Rule to include paratextual elements preserved in the writer's dispersed library.
Podnieks, Elizabeth. "Maternal Stars of the Silent Screen: Gender, Genre, and Photoplay Magazine." pp. 578–87.
Scans a digital archive of an early twentieth-century fan magazine for its representations of silent film stars who became mothers.
Scans a digital archive of an early twentieth-century fan magazine for its representations of silent film stars who became mothers.
Celinscak, Mark. "Unlikely Documents, Unexpected Places: The Limits of Archive." pp. 587–97.
Reports on an archival discovery of the unrecognized role of Canadian military personnel in the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Reports on an archival discovery of the unrecognized role of Canadian military personnel in the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Dubrofsky, Rachel E. "Frayed Edges: Selfies, Auschwitz, and a Blushing Emoticon." pp. 597–605.
Discusses the notorious case of the Auschwitz selfie in order to investigate the role of affect and gender stereotypes in popular-press depictions of young women.
Discusses the notorious case of the Auschwitz selfie in order to investigate the role of affect and gender stereotypes in popular-press depictions of young women.
Buss, Helen. "Kim Thuy's Ru and the Art of the Anecdote." pp. 605–12.
Reflects on the efficacy of anecdotal life writing in the work of Vietnamese French Canadian writer Kim Thuy.
Reflects on the efficacy of anecdotal life writing in the work of Vietnamese French Canadian writer Kim Thuy.
Ezer, Ozlem. "Drawing a Narrative Landscape with Women Refugees." 612–19.
Addresses the lives of Syrian refugee women whose narratives of successful integration confound dominant media stereotypes.
Addresses the lives of Syrian refugee women whose narratives of successful integration confound dominant media stereotypes.
Rodrigues, Manoela dos Anjos Afonso. "Autobiogeography and Translanguaging: Decolonizing Immigrant Life Stories through Visual Narrative Practices." pp. 621–42.
Explores individual and collective autobiographical acts aiming at the creation of places of enunciation for decolonial selves through practices in visual arts.
Explores individual and collective autobiographical acts aiming at the creation of places of enunciation for decolonial selves through practices in visual arts.
Fournier, Lauren. "Autotheory as Contemporary Feminist Practice Across Media." pp. 643–62.
Considers post-internet practices of making space for sickness and sadness in response to intersectional imperatives and the complications of neoliberalism.
Considers post-internet practices of making space for sickness and sadness in response to intersectional imperatives and the complications of neoliberalism.
Venema, Kathleen. "Remembering and Forgetting: Graphic Lives at the End of the Line." pp. 663–86.
Analyzes four graphic memoirs of a daughter's caregiving through a mother's final years.
Analyzes four graphic memoirs of a daughter's caregiving through a mother's final years.
Arfuch, Leonor. "Childhood Exile: Memories and Returns." pp. 687–704.
Focuses on accounts of political exile, from outside canonical genres, in which personal experience interfaces with collective memory and bears ethical and political impact.
Focuses on accounts of political exile, from outside canonical genres, in which personal experience interfaces with collective memory and bears ethical and political impact.
Allen, Rose Mary. "Women Making Freedom: Rethinking Gender in Intra-Caribbean Migration from a Curaçaoan Perspective." pp. 705–19.
Employs feminist scholarly historical data research to "reinsert" Curaçaoan women into the historical narratives of nineteenth century migration from Curaçao.
Employs feminist scholarly historical data research to "reinsert" Curaçaoan women into the historical narratives of nineteenth century migration from Curaçao.
Taylor, Keila D. "Rejecting Objectivity: Reflections of a Black Feminist Researcher Interviewing Black Women." pp. 721–26.
Interrogates disciplinary demands to keep qualitative interviews impersonal, emphasizing interviewer-subject empathy and connectivity.
Interrogates disciplinary demands to keep qualitative interviews impersonal, emphasizing interviewer-subject empathy and connectivity.
Rifkind, Candida. "The Work of Teaching Women's Auto|Bio Comics." pp. 727–36.
Outlines several exercises that examine how women utilize comics to reveal what is hidden in a way that promotes interconnectivity between comix and reader-viewers.
Outlines several exercises that examine how women utilize comics to reveal what is hidden in a way that promotes interconnectivity between comix and reader-viewers.
a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, vol. 34, no. 1, 2019, special issue on "Trans Narratives," edited by Ana Horvat, Orly Lael Netzer, Sarah McRae, and Julie Rak.
Horvat, Ana, Orly Lael Netzer, Sarah McRae, and Julie Rak. "Unfixing the Prefix in Life Writing Studies: Trans, Transmedia, Transnational." pp. 1–17.
Introduces this special issue that features critical work about life writing by trans people and interrogates the idea of trans in multiple registers.
Introduces this special issue that features critical work about life writing by trans people and interrogates the idea of trans in multiple registers.
Vipond, Evan. "Becoming Culturally (Un)Intelligible: Exploring the Terrain of Trans Life Writing." pp. 19–43.
Engages with feminist theory and transgender theory to offer a metatheoretical account of how trans life writing makes trans subjectivities culturally intelligible and complex.
Engages with feminist theory and transgender theory to offer a metatheoretical account of how trans life writing makes trans subjectivities culturally intelligible and complex.
Pellegrini, Chiara. "Posttranssexual Temporalities: Negotiating Canonical Memoir Narratives in Kate Bornstein's Gender Outlaw and Juliet Jacques's Trans." pp. 45–65.
Argues that Bornstein and Jacques distort the timeline of transition to undo the linear and progressive constitution of a stable identity that characterizes this genre.
Argues that Bornstein and Jacques distort the timeline of transition to undo the linear and progressive constitution of a stable identity that characterizes this genre.
hartline, france rose. "Examining Trans Narratives in the Wake of Norway's Gender Recognition Law." pp. 67–87.
Shows that gender binaries and inadequate medical access in Norway's gender recognition law compel trans people to negotiate their identities along trans political lines.
Shows that gender binaries and inadequate medical access in Norway's gender recognition law compel trans people to negotiate their identities along trans political lines.
Rondot, Sarah Ray. "Against a Single Story: Diverse Trans* Narratives in Autobiographical Documentary Film." pp. 89–110.
Expands representational horizons for autobiographical trans* narrative films beyond sensational, simplified, and pathological gender ideologies.
Expands representational horizons for autobiographical trans* narrative films beyond sensational, simplified, and pathological gender ideologies.
Graham, Pamela. "Transnational Digital Biography: The Forgetting and Remembering of Winifred Atwell." pp. 111–31.
Suggests that the impact of the digital is irrevocably altering the mechanisms by which transnational biographical identities are constructed.
Suggests that the impact of the digital is irrevocably altering the mechanisms by which transnational biographical identities are constructed.
Cho, Lily. "The Afterlives of Stars, Known and Unknown." pp. 133–36.
Calls attention to the losses that are part and parcel of the process of unforgetting that the digital turn makes possible, in response to the previous essay by Pamela Graham.
Calls attention to the losses that are part and parcel of the process of unforgetting that the digital turn makes possible, in response to the previous essay by Pamela Graham.
Chu, Erica. "Potential for Healing and Harm: Teaching Trans Narratives to Trans Students." pp. 137–40.
Recommends preparation, research, honesty, and collaboration as keys to teaching transgender narratives in ways that provide sustenance and relief to trans students.
Recommends preparation, research, honesty, and collaboration as keys to teaching transgender narratives in ways that provide sustenance and relief to trans students.
Pazargadi, Leila Moayeri. "Learning to Listen: The Power of Transnational Life Storytelling." pp. 141–45.
Reflects on the power of life storytelling as it relates to empowering first-generation and transnational students, who are crossing physical and figurative borders.
Reflects on the power of life storytelling as it relates to empowering first-generation and transnational students, who are crossing physical and figurative borders.
Crawford, Lucas. "What's Next Is the Past." pp. 147–50.
Looks at differences in queer and trans time, and advocates for humanistic approaches to history, especially ones suspicious of linear narratives of progress and tipping points.
Looks at differences in queer and trans time, and advocates for humanistic approaches to history, especially ones suspicious of linear narratives of progress and tipping points.
a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, vol. 34, no. 2, 2019, forum on "Concealing and Revealing– Life Writing at the Edges."
Beard, Laura J., and Lisa Ortiz-Vilarelle. "Concealing and Revealing: Life Writing at the Edges." pp. 303–306.
Introduces this forum on concealing and revealing in life writing as an extension of the 11th International Auto/Biography Association Conference held in Brazil in July 2018.
Introduces this forum on concealing and revealing in life writing as an extension of the 11th International Auto/Biography Association Conference held in Brazil in July 2018.
Batzke, Ina. "Concealing and Revealing in Life Narratives by Undocumented Authors." pp. 306–16.
Asks us to think more broadly about the ways all lifewriting genres set up conventions that limit what we are and are not allowed to say within those genres.
Asks us to think more broadly about the ways all lifewriting genres set up conventions that limit what we are and are not allowed to say within those genres.
Gibbons, Alison. "Nurturing Life Writing in Egypt after the Arab Spring: Fiction as 'Survival Mechanism.'" pp. 316–24.
Examines fictionalizing strategies in autobiographical narrative as a tool of human rights advocacy in Egypt.
Examines fictionalizing strategies in autobiographical narrative as a tool of human rights advocacy in Egypt.
Santos, Erika Pereira, Laura Beard, and Lisa Ortiz-Vilarelle. "Autobiographical Unveiling in the Dramatic Performances of Childhood: A Conversation with Erika Santos." pp. 324–29.
Interview with Erika Pereira Santos about her dramaturgical approach to creating a work that combines her childhood memories with those of Walter Benjamin.
Interview with Erika Pereira Santos about her dramaturgical approach to creating a work that combines her childhood memories with those of Walter Benjamin.
Rüggemeier, Anne. "Lists in Life Writing: The List as a Means to Visualize the Trace of the Absent." pp. 330–42.
Theorizes traces of absence in the practice of list-making for sorting what is recorded and what is forgotten in our daily lives.
Theorizes traces of absence in the practice of list-making for sorting what is recorded and what is forgotten in our daily lives.
a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, vol. 34, no. 3, 2019, special issue on "Engaging Donna Haraway: Lives in the Natureculture Web," edited by Cynthia Huff and Margaretta Jolly.
Huff, Cynthia. "Introduction: Situating Donna Haraway in the Life Narrative Web." pp. 375–84.
Situates contributors' pieces in relation to Donna Haraway's work, to autobiography studies, and to each other, arguing that her key concepts question and expand the meaning of autobiography and the scholarly practice of autobiography studies.
Situates contributors' pieces in relation to Donna Haraway's work, to autobiography studies, and to each other, arguing that her key concepts question and expand the meaning of autobiography and the scholarly practice of autobiography studies.
Haraway, Donna. "Revisiting Catland in 2019: Situating Denizens of the Chthulucene." pp. 385–86.
Responds to "The Writer of the Companion-Species Manifesto Emails her Dog-People."
Responds to "The Writer of the Companion-Species Manifesto Emails her Dog-People."
O'Riordan, Kate. "Life and the Technological: Cyborgs, Companions and the Chthulucene." pp. 387–402.
Traces the cyborg through modes of life writing and routes through feminist science fiction and science studies.
Traces the cyborg through modes of life writing and routes through feminist science fiction and science studies.
Haefner, Joel. "Modest_Witness in the Wire: Haraway, Predictive Algorithims, and Online Profiling." pp. 403–22.
Shows that Haraway's cyborg and a modest witness have renewed salience, as evolutions of the digital world trouble life writing and theoretical constructs such as narration, authenticity, agency, automediality, and collaboration.
Shows that Haraway's cyborg and a modest witness have renewed salience, as evolutions of the digital world trouble life writing and theoretical constructs such as narration, authenticity, agency, automediality, and collaboration.
Goodeve, Thyrza Nichols. "More Than Props: Metaphor, A Biological Imperative." pp. 423–25.
Reflects on the twentieth anniversary edition of Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium. FemaleMan©_Meets_OncoMouse™, drawing from the preface to "Nothing Comes Without Its World," and a collaborative conversation with Haraway in 2017.
Reflects on the twentieth anniversary edition of Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium. FemaleMan©_Meets_OncoMouse™, drawing from the preface to "Nothing Comes Without Its World," and a collaborative conversation with Haraway in 2017.
Haran, Joan. "Bound in the Spiral Dance: Haraway, Starhawk, and Writing Lives in Feminist Community." pp. 427–43.
Uses the figure of the Spiral Dance to draw out biographical, theoretical, and political similarities and points of friction between Haraway and Starhawk.
Uses the figure of the Spiral Dance to draw out biographical, theoretical, and political similarities and points of friction between Haraway and Starhawk.
Huff, Cynthia. "From the Autobiographical Pact to the Zoetrophic Pack." pp. 445–60.
Proposes the zoetrophic pack to refigure Philippe Lejeune's autobiographical pact in order to foreground nonhuman actants and trouble issues of representation, identity, and experience, central to autobiography studies.
Proposes the zoetrophic pack to refigure Philippe Lejeune's autobiographical pact in order to foreground nonhuman actants and trouble issues of representation, identity, and experience, central to autobiography studies.
Mayeri, Rachel. "'The Jollies': A Biographical Artwork about Primatologist Alison Jolly." pp. 461–65.
Considers biographical artwork, gender in the history of primatology and science, and talking animals in "The Jollies," a video about the late primate scientist Alison Jolly, narrated by lemurs, a langur monkey, and a dog, using the voices of Jolly's colleagues, daughter, and Donna Haraway.
Considers biographical artwork, gender in the history of primatology and science, and talking animals in "The Jollies," a video about the late primate scientist Alison Jolly, narrated by lemurs, a langur monkey, and a dog, using the voices of Jolly's colleagues, daughter, and Donna Haraway.
Jolly, Margaretta. "Survival Writing: Autobiography vs. Primatology in the Conservation Diaries of Alison Jolly." pp. 467–84.
Uses Donna Haraway's ecological visions to propose that Alison Jolly, the author's mother, employed auto/biographical modes in her writings as a primatologist of ringtailed lemurs to unsettle anthropomorphic and Western perspectives and to enhance conservation efforts in Madagascar.
Uses Donna Haraway's ecological visions to propose that Alison Jolly, the author's mother, employed auto/biographical modes in her writings as a primatologist of ringtailed lemurs to unsettle anthropomorphic and Western perspectives and to enhance conservation efforts in Madagascar.
Nayar, Pramod. "Genetic Prosopography and Caste: Natureculture in Contemporary India." pp. 485–500.
Examines the genetic prosopographic narratives revolving around caste identity in India and their imbrication of genetic "testimony" and contemporary cultural identities with Donna Haraway's theorization of natureculture webs.
Examines the genetic prosopographic narratives revolving around caste identity in India and their imbrication of genetic "testimony" and contemporary cultural identities with Donna Haraway's theorization of natureculture webs.
Ferrando, Francesca, Gisella Sorrentino, and Elena Cappanera. "Linea Nigra: Posthuman M/Others." pp. 501–505.
Delves into a post-dualistic reading of posthuman pregnancy to express the deeper meaning of motherhood in the twenty-first century, as inspired by Hannah Arendt, Rosi Braidotti, and Donna Haraway.
Delves into a post-dualistic reading of posthuman pregnancy to express the deeper meaning of motherhood in the twenty-first century, as inspired by Hannah Arendt, Rosi Braidotti, and Donna Haraway.
Abblitt, Stephen. "Composite lives: Making-with our multispecies kin (Imagine!)." pp. 507–18.
Imagines a sympoietic life narrative which traverses life and lives (individual, social, biological, special, molecular, atomic, etc.) as inspired by the companionist, compostist philosophies of Donna Haraway.
Imagines a sympoietic life narrative which traverses life and lives (individual, social, biological, special, molecular, atomic, etc.) as inspired by the companionist, compostist philosophies of Donna Haraway.
Das, Parvathy, and Vinod Balakrishnan. "Registering the Self and the Registers of Self: Towards an Ethics of Collaborative Autobiography." pp. 519–37.
Examines situated ethics in Nalini Jameela and Mayilamm's collaborative autobiographies, positing Haraway's diffraction and mutated modest witness as new registers of collaborative self-formation.
Examines situated ethics in Nalini Jameela and Mayilamm's collaborative autobiographies, positing Haraway's diffraction and mutated modest witness as new registers of collaborative self-formation.
Harley, Alexis. "Haraway's Material-Semiotic Knot: A Learning-Teaching Response for Creative-Critical Times." pp. 539–53.
Discusses how studying "A Manifesto for Cyborgs" and The Companion Species Manifesto in a classroom context involves a practice of material-semiotic knottedness that puts pressure on the implicated binaries.
Discusses how studying "A Manifesto for Cyborgs" and The Companion Species Manifesto in a classroom context involves a practice of material-semiotic knottedness that puts pressure on the implicated binaries.
King, Katie. "Soils for Making Kin: Compost, Saudade, Com-bios." pp. 555–63.
Shows how Haraway's concept of making kin prepares a compost of life writings that nurture meditations on serious jokes, returns and repetitions of place and kinship, friendship, and political play.
Shows how Haraway's concept of making kin prepares a compost of life writings that nurture meditations on serious jokes, returns and repetitions of place and kinship, friendship, and political play.
Haraway, Donna. "It Matters What Stories Tell Stories, It Matters Whose Stories Tell Stories." pp. 565–75.
Proposes several short instances of compost writing.
Proposes several short instances of compost writing.
African Studies, vol. 78, no. 2, 2019, special issue on "Awkward Biographies: Unsettled Stories of Southern African Lives," edited by Nancy J. Jacobs and Andrew Bank
Jacobs, Nancy J., and Andrew Bank. "Introduction: Biography in Post-apartheid South Africa: A Call for Awkwardness." pp. 165–82.
Frames the special issue's engagement with awkwardness as a generative way to face the inevitable difficulties of the biographical enterprise, particularly in South Africa.
Frames the special issue's engagement with awkwardness as a generative way to face the inevitable difficulties of the biographical enterprise, particularly in South Africa.
Dee, Henry. "'I am a bad native': Masculinity and Marriage in the Biographies of Clements Kadalie." pp. 183–204.
Foregrounds the awkward aspects of gender and family in the life of Clements Kadalie, a trade unionist turned councillor, that his biography deliberately circumvents.
Foregrounds the awkward aspects of gender and family in the life of Clements Kadalie, a trade unionist turned councillor, that his biography deliberately circumvents.
Shutt, Allison K. "Writing Jasper Savanhu's Biography from his Awkward Self-narratives." pp. 205–24.
Deals with "behind the scenes" stories that shape the public's memory of Jasper Savanhu, MP and parliamentary secretary in the Central Africa Federation government.
Deals with "behind the scenes" stories that shape the public's memory of Jasper Savanhu, MP and parliamentary secretary in the Central Africa Federation government.
Jacobs, Nancy J. "The Awkward Biography of the Young Washington Okumu: CIA Asset (?) and the Prayer Breakfast's Man in Africa." pp. 225–45.
Reflects on the challenges of chronicling the professional life of Washington Okumu, a man whose greatest achievement was to position himself on the edges of power.
Reflects on the challenges of chronicling the professional life of Washington Okumu, a man whose greatest achievement was to position himself on the edges of power.
Healy-Clancy, Meghan. "Writing from Johannesburg: Nadine Gordimer in the Global Anti-apartheid Movement." pp. 246–66.
Examines how Gordimer's life in Johannesburg in an era of exile made her career possible and her politics awkward to enact and write about.
Examines how Gordimer's life in Johannesburg in an era of exile made her career possible and her politics awkward to enact and write about.
Bank, Andrew. "'Bridging the gap between the intellectual and the human': The Awkward Biography of Anthropologist and Scholar-activist Iona Simon Mayer (1923–)." pp. 267–89.
Tracks the coming together of anti-apartheid activism, feminism, and humanism in the life and work of the social anthropologist and scholar-activist Iona Simon Mayer.
Tracks the coming together of anti-apartheid activism, feminism, and humanism in the life and work of the social anthropologist and scholar-activist Iona Simon Mayer.
Landau, Paul S. "Gendered Silences in Nelson Mandela's and Ruth First's Struggle Auto/biographies." pp. 290–306.
Offers new insights into the history of the mobilization of the ANC by uncovering what Nelson Mandela and Ruth First leave out of their life stories.
Offers new insights into the history of the mobilization of the ANC by uncovering what Nelson Mandela and Ruth First leave out of their life stories.
Avieson, Bunty, Fiona Giles, and Sue Joseph, editors. Still Here: Memoirs of Trauma, Illness and Loss. Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature, Routledge, 2019.
Avieson, Bunty, Fiona Giles, and Sue Joseph. "Introduction." pp. 1–14.
Introduces this collection of essays about trauma memoirs that draws from a range of disciplines and diverse cross-cultural approaches.
Introduces this collection of essays about trauma memoirs that draws from a range of disciplines and diverse cross-cultural approaches.
Watharow, Annmaree. "Rewriting the Ontological Self Following the Loss of the Communication Senses." pp. 17–33.
Looks at how writing, studying memoir, and the narrative itself can restore ontological security for a deaf/blind doctoral student facing complex communication challenges.
Looks at how writing, studying memoir, and the narrative itself can restore ontological security for a deaf/blind doctoral student facing complex communication challenges.
Seethaler, Ina. "Memoir and Mental Disability: A Call to Action" pp. 34–47.
Demonstrates how women with mental health issues use the genre to negotiate the liminal state they find themselves in due to the social construction of disability, gender, and race.
Demonstrates how women with mental health issues use the genre to negotiate the liminal state they find themselves in due to the social construction of disability, gender, and race.
Wise, Danielle. "A Memoir on Writing Memoir: Navigating the Past to Find Voice in the Present." pp. 48–64.
Investigates how the body holds memory and how narrating pain promotes healing.
Investigates how the body holds memory and how narrating pain promotes healing.
Denejkina, Anna. "Writing Trauma: The Other into the Story of the Self." pp. 67–83.
Considers the place of exo-autoethnography—a distinct ethnographic method exploring one's own experience as directed by the experience of the other through the transgenerational transmission of trauma—as a research method in the social sciences.
Considers the place of exo-autoethnography—a distinct ethnographic method exploring one's own experience as directed by the experience of the other through the transgenerational transmission of trauma—as a research method in the social sciences.
Brien, Donna Lee. "Modeling the Good Death in Memoir." pp. 84–97.
Analyzes a series of memoirs to explore how authors represent death and its associated practices, and the insights this offers the living.
Analyzes a series of memoirs to explore how authors represent death and its associated practices, and the insights this offers the living.
Scholnick, Bob. "Trauma's Interior History: Walt Whitman's Civil War and Sequelae." pp. 98–112.
Discusses how Whitman simultaneously writes his own memoir and one of the time, and alternates between conveying war-related trauma as either elusive or overwhelming.
Discusses how Whitman simultaneously writes his own memoir and one of the time, and alternates between conveying war-related trauma as either elusive or overwhelming.
Matthews, Nicole, and Naomi Sutherland. "Listening with Feeling: Emotional Labour and Digital Storytelling in Dementia Care Education." pp. 115–28.
Identifies some of the potential hazards of soliciting emotive stories for the purposes of education, improving care, and changing health and disability policy.
Identifies some of the potential hazards of soliciting emotive stories for the purposes of education, improving care, and changing health and disability policy.
Lindahl, Carl. "Survivor to Survivor Story-Telling After Hurricane Katrina." pp. 129–42.
Argues that the healing value of survivor-to-survivor storytelling surpasses medical intervention because it empowers survivors and strengthens community bonds.
Argues that the healing value of survivor-to-survivor storytelling surpasses medical intervention because it empowers survivors and strengthens community bonds.
Joseph, Sue. "Life Writing and Incremental Healing: Word by Word, Year by Year." pp. 143–58.
Considers the ethics and long-term effects of writing as therapy by tracking the trajectory of a life writing project.
Considers the ethics and long-term effects of writing as therapy by tracking the trajectory of a life writing project.
Den Elzin, Katrin. "Investigating Ethics in the Young Widow Memoir." pp. 161–75.
Draws on the author's own practice-led research to examine the process of writing a grief narrative and considers the ethical challenges of evoking difficult memories and expressing them artistically through nonfiction tropes.
Draws on the author's own practice-led research to examine the process of writing a grief narrative and considers the ethical challenges of evoking difficult memories and expressing them artistically through nonfiction tropes.
Zehelein, Eva-Sabine. "Breaking Conventions, Crossing Genres: Motherhood and Memoir in the Age of Surrogacy." pp. 176–88.
Situates memoirs of infertile women who become mothers by surrogacy at the intersection of personal trauma, pathography, matriography, and biography.
Situates memoirs of infertile women who become mothers by surrogacy at the intersection of personal trauma, pathography, matriography, and biography.
Rickett, Carolyn. "'Spit Us Out Whole': Voicing the Double Wound in Carol Dine's Places in the Bone: A Memoir." pp. 189–206.
Views Dine's discursive methods, which include prose intermixed with poetry, that enable her to write through the multiple traumas she has endured.
Views Dine's discursive methods, which include prose intermixed with poetry, that enable her to write through the multiple traumas she has endured.
Shankar, Ravi. "'Still Mauled but Constructive New Lives': Trauma Memoirs in 20th Century American Prison Writing." pp. 209–23.
Unpacks some of the psychological issues and the post-traumatic stress of institutionalization prisoners discuss in memoirs about incarceration.
Unpacks some of the psychological issues and the post-traumatic stress of institutionalization prisoners discuss in memoirs about incarceration.
Sbiri, Kamal. "Becoming Refugee: Poetics and Politics of Representation and Displacement in Refugees' Poetry." pp. 224–37.
Shows that liminality becomes a permanent feature in reconstructing refugee identity, beyond the shared traumatic experiences and amnesia at home in refugees' poetry.
Shows that liminality becomes a permanent feature in reconstructing refugee identity, beyond the shared traumatic experiences and amnesia at home in refugees' poetry.
McDonald, Willa. "A Call to Action: Behrouz Boochani's Manus Island Prison Narratives." pp. 238–254.
Uses the example of Boochani's memoir to demonstrate how digital technologies can turn personal narratives of trauma into acts of political protest and resistance.
Uses the example of Boochani's memoir to demonstrate how digital technologies can turn personal narratives of trauma into acts of political protest and resistance.
AvtobiografiЯ, no. 7, 2018, special issue on "Letter Writing during the Silver Age as a Source for Unknown and Forgotten Names."
Gullotta, Andrea, and Claudia Criveller. "Introduction." pp. 5–8.
Introduces research trajectories for private correspondence in this issue.
Introduces research trajectories for private correspondence in this issue.
Poliakov, Fedor. "'An Inexorably Radiant Individual': Memories of Childhood in Ellis's Letters to Nikolai Zaretskii." pp. 11–30.
Offers a new perspective on Ellis's traumatic feelings caused by being an illegitimate child, using textual fragments from three of his unpublished letters.
Offers a new perspective on Ellis's traumatic feelings caused by being an illegitimate child, using textual fragments from three of his unpublished letters.
Fedotova, Svetlana. "'Erotic Attitudes' in an Epistolary Discourse (Based on Aleksandr Blok's Correspondence with Liubov' Mendeleeva-Blok)." pp. 31–50.
Analyzes the two correspondents' communicative strategies and examines how erotic attitudes in their letters are replaced with philia, a love-friendship relationship.
Analyzes the two correspondents' communicative strategies and examines how erotic attitudes in their letters are replaced with philia, a love-friendship relationship.
Sergeeva-Kliatis, Anna. "'I Answer Again "No" to the Proposal You (…) Made': The Correspondence between Vera Komissarzhevskaia and Sergei Tatishchev." pp. 51–62.
Reveals new information about Komissarzhevskaia's biography based on her epistolary exchange with Tatishchev.
Reveals new information about Komissarzhevskaia's biography based on her epistolary exchange with Tatishchev.
Bogdanova, Ol'ga. "On the History of the Crimean 'Literary Nests' at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century: Letters from Vasilii Komarovich to Maksimilian Voloshin." pp. 63–72.
Enriches the idea of the estate-summer cottage complex of Koktebel' as a cultural locus, and clarifies the relationship between Voloshin and Komarovich's literary texts.
Enriches the idea of the estate-summer cottage complex of Koktebel' as a cultural locus, and clarifies the relationship between Voloshin and Komarovich's literary texts.
Gacheva, Anastasia. "Eternal Themes, Eternal Questions and Eternal Images in the Correspondence between the Composer Vladimir Rebikov and the Philosopher Aleksander Gorskii." pp. 73–134.
Discusses an important biographical and creative source for researchers who are interested in the artistic heritage of the "father of Russian modernism" in music as well as one of the representatives of the Christian branch of Russian cosmism.
Discusses an important biographical and creative source for researchers who are interested in the artistic heritage of the "father of Russian modernism" in music as well as one of the representatives of the Christian branch of Russian cosmism.
Torshilov, Dmitrii. "The Myth of My Life: A Letter from Iakov Golosovker to Andrei Bely." pp. 135–146.
Suggests that Iakov Golosovker developed the theme of the mythologization of autobiography in a manner that was close to the Russian Symbolists.
Suggests that Iakov Golosovker developed the theme of the mythologization of autobiography in a manner that was close to the Russian Symbolists.
Glukhova, Elena. "The Autobiographical Discourse in Vera Stanevich's Letters to Andrei Bely." pp. 147–168.
Studies the relationship between Andrei Bely and Vera Stanevich, a poet and translator, and compares female correspondence, as a sub-genre, to the confession letter.
Studies the relationship between Andrei Bely and Vera Stanevich, a poet and translator, and compares female correspondence, as a sub-genre, to the confession letter.
AvtobiografiЯ, no. 8, 2019, special issue on "The Diary: A Borderline Genre."
Criveller, Claudia, and Andrea Gullotta. "Introduction." pp. 5–7.
Pays special attention to the insights offered by the articles in this special issue into the diary in Russian culture.
Pays special attention to the insights offered by the articles in this special issue into the diary in Russian culture.
Deotto, Patrizia. "Introduction." pp. 11–18.
Introduction in Russian to the special issue.
Introduction in Russian to the special issue.
Rebecchini, Damiano. "'You Don't Belong to Yourself': Subject and Power in the Early Diaries of Alexander II (1826–1839)." pp. 19–46.
Demonstrates how Aleksandr Nikolaevich (the future Alexander II) rejected the romantic journal model of his mother and Zhukovskii's expressive mode, but followed his father's example, who viewed the diary as a tool of self-control and self-discipline.
Demonstrates how Aleksandr Nikolaevich (the future Alexander II) rejected the romantic journal model of his mother and Zhukovskii's expressive mode, but followed his father's example, who viewed the diary as a tool of self-control and self-discipline.
Popiel-Machnicki, Wawrzyniec, and Bartosz Osiewicz. "Bronisław Grombczewski's Travel Diaries as Experimental Memorialistic Literature." pp. 47–62.
Identifies features of the diary genre for Grombczewski, the culture of diary-writing in the period, and the correlation between historical and intimate narratives.
Identifies features of the diary genre for Grombczewski, the culture of diary-writing in the period, and the correlation between historical and intimate narratives.
Reznichenko, Naum. "From 'Ardent Boy' to 'A Man with Honour and Intellect': David Samoilov's Pre-War and Wartime Diaries." pp. 63–84.
Argues that Samoilov's diaries are not simply an autobiographical document, but a personal history, which is developed more fully in his poetry.
Argues that Samoilov's diaries are not simply an autobiographical document, but a personal history, which is developed more fully in his poetry.
Bogomolov, Nikolai. "Diaries in Twentieth-Century Russian Culture: Twenty-Five Years Later." pp. 85–96.
Contends that scholars must distinguish between poetry and truth in diaries intended for outside readers.
Contends that scholars must distinguish between poetry and truth in diaries intended for outside readers.
Dviniatina, Tatiana. "Ivan Bunin's 1920s Diaries: Limits and Space for their Reconstruction." pp. 97–116.
Discusses an attempt to reconstruct the parts of Bunin's diary that he destroyed, by considering the kinds of events he recorded and the principles that determine the subsequent selection of diary entries to retrospectively construct a personal history.
Discusses an attempt to reconstruct the parts of Bunin's diary that he destroyed, by considering the kinds of events he recorded and the principles that determine the subsequent selection of diary entries to retrospectively construct a personal history.
Nikolaev, Dmitrii. "The Diary as Political Commentary: Ivan Bunin's Okaiannye dni (1925) and the Newspaper 'Vozrozhdenie.'" pp. 117–48.
Examines the first publication of Bunin's diary, Okaiannye dni (Cursed Days), in the Russian émigré newspaper "Vozrozhdenie" (Rebirth) and the text's role in the ideological debates and pathos of the time.
Examines the first publication of Bunin's diary, Okaiannye dni (Cursed Days), in the Russian émigré newspaper "Vozrozhdenie" (Rebirth) and the text's role in the ideological debates and pathos of the time.
Savkina, Irina. "You, Me and I: Addressivity in the Diaries of Ordinary Soviet Citizens." pp. 149–76.
Discusses the problem of addressivity (Bakhtin's adresovannost') in the diaries of Soviet citizens, based on an understanding of the diary as an uncertain genre balanced between privacy and publicity.
Discusses the problem of addressivity (Bakhtin's adresovannost') in the diaries of Soviet citizens, based on an understanding of the diary as an uncertain genre balanced between privacy and publicity.
Dotsenko, Sergei. "Aleksandr Blok's Diary as the Key to the Mysterious Image of Jesus Christ at the End of The Twelve." pp. 177–218.
Reads the ending of Blok's poem as an attempt to deconstruct the symbolism of the traditional image of Christ.
Reads the ending of Blok's poem as an attempt to deconstruct the symbolism of the traditional image of Christ.
Kuzovkina, Tatiana. "'An Intersection of Fate': Iurii Lotman and Zara Mints' Youth Diaries." pp. 219–78.
Analyzes the diaries of Iurii Lotman and Zara Mints, revealing similarities in their characters, attitudes, and goals, from unpublished archival materials.
Analyzes the diaries of Iurii Lotman and Zara Mints, revealing similarities in their characters, attitudes, and goals, from unpublished archival materials.
Barnwell, Ashley, and Kate Douglas, editors. Research Methodologies for Auto/biography Studies. Routledge, 2019.
Barnwell, Ashley, and Kate Douglas. "What We Do When We Do Life Writing: Methodologies for Auto/Biography Now." pp. 1–10.
Articulates that this collection positions auto/biography as a key discipline for modelling interdisciplinary approaches, and engages the research practices, reflective behaviors, and ethical considerations that inform auto/biographical research.
Articulates that this collection positions auto/biography as a key discipline for modelling interdisciplinary approaches, and engages the research practices, reflective behaviors, and ethical considerations that inform auto/biographical research.
Lynch, Claire. "Writing Memoir." pp. 13–18.
Considers the experience of writing memoir and the differences between the self-inflicted risks of exposure and the ethical dilemmas involved in writing about others.
Considers the experience of writing memoir and the differences between the self-inflicted risks of exposure and the ethical dilemmas involved in writing about others.
Tamboukou, Maria. "Archival Methods in Auto/Biographical Research." pp. 19–24.
Suggests that archival research be taken as an entanglement of intellectual and material practices with multiple points of emergence with some unforeseen destinations.
Suggests that archival research be taken as an entanglement of intellectual and material practices with multiple points of emergence with some unforeseen destinations.
Poletti, Anna. "Zines." pp. 26–33.
Views the practice of making and trading zines as a research method.
Views the practice of making and trading zines as a research method.
Whitlock, Gillian. "Objects and Things." pp. 34–40.
Alerts us to thresholds in the constant and relational making of the human and the non-human that are entangled in nature, culture, and technology.
Alerts us to thresholds in the constant and relational making of the human and the non-human that are entangled in nature, culture, and technology.
Morrison, Aimée. "Social, Media, Life Writing: Online Lives at Scale, Up Close, and In Context." pp. 41–48.
Includes context, community, platform affordance, and scale to understand individual online and social media participation as micro-acts of life writing.
Includes context, community, platform affordance, and scale to understand individual online and social media participation as micro-acts of life writing.
Brophy, Sarah. "Studying Visual Autobiographies in the Post-Digital Era." pp. 49–60.
Makes a case for applying approaches grounded in auto/biography studies, visual culture studies, and feminist media studies to study visual autobiography in the digital era.
Makes a case for applying approaches grounded in auto/biography studies, visual culture studies, and feminist media studies to study visual autobiography in the digital era.
Howes, W. Craig. "Biography." pp. 61–67.
Contends that Indigenous biographers are transforming biography by reconsidering the kinds of biographies people need, viewing biographies as collective ventures, and problematizing the concept of a biography.
Contends that Indigenous biographers are transforming biography by reconsidering the kinds of biographies people need, viewing biographies as collective ventures, and problematizing the concept of a biography.
Rifkind, Candida. "Research Methods for Studying Graphic Biography." p. 68–75.
Locates a research methodology for graphic biography at the intersections of the disciplines of literary, film, comics, and life writing studies.
Locates a research methodology for graphic biography at the intersections of the disciplines of literary, film, comics, and life writing studies.
Barnwell, Ashley. "Working with Family Histories." pp. 76–82.
Asks both ethical and practical methodological questions about writing family histories as a life writing practice.
Asks both ethical and practical methodological questions about writing family histories as a life writing practice.
Kurvet-Käosaar, Leena. "Tracing Emotional Bonds in Family Letters: A Pursuit of an Epistolary Melody." pp. 83–89.
Focuses on the textual features and status of letter writing as a set of materially embedded processes and activities to define it as a long-lasting dialogical life writing practice.
Focuses on the textual features and status of letter writing as a set of materially embedded processes and activities to define it as a long-lasting dialogical life writing practice.
Cardell, Kylie. "Life Narrative Methods for Working with Diaries." pp. 90–95.
Identifies the contemporary diary as a hybrid self-representational form shaped by public and private identity/discourse conventions that are radically evolving.
Identifies the contemporary diary as a hybrid self-representational form shaped by public and private identity/discourse conventions that are radically evolving.
Murray, Sally Ann. "Autoethnographic Life Writing: Reaching Beyond, Crossing Over." pp. 96–102.
Offers scholars interested in exploring the possibilities of autoethnographic inflection some advice on how to perform a creative-conceptual process of inquiry.
Offers scholars interested in exploring the possibilities of autoethnographic inflection some advice on how to perform a creative-conceptual process of inquiry.
Ravn, Signe. "Telling Life Stories Using Creative Methods in Qualitative Interviews: Performing and Broadcasting Lives." pp. 103–108.
Explores creative methods in research interviews as a way for life writing scholars and auto/biography writers to discover alternative, or otherwise untold, life narratives.
Explores creative methods in research interviews as a way for life writing scholars and auto/biography writers to discover alternative, or otherwise untold, life narratives.
Gudmundsdottir, Gunn. "Auto/Biographical Testimonies in Theatre and Radio." pp. 109–15.
Analyzes how the ethical, formal, and process-oriented qualities of theatre, radio/podcasts, and interviews influence the auto/biographical narratives they create.
Analyzes how the ethical, formal, and process-oriented qualities of theatre, radio/podcasts, and interviews influence the auto/biographical narratives they create.
Rak, Julie. "Big Data and Self-Tracking." pp 116–21.
Posits that changing our methodology to include ourselves and case studies in our research could help life writing scholars see how big data structures our lives.
Posits that changing our methodology to include ourselves and case studies in our research could help life writing scholars see how big data structures our lives.
Leane, Jeanine. "Research Trajectories." pp. 125–31.
A Wiradjuri whose Country is the Murrumbidgee River, the author reflects on the role of "informed imagination" to relate secrets and stories woven through the body into the soul, and stored in memory-baskets of the mind to become intergenerational history.
A Wiradjuri whose Country is the Murrumbidgee River, the author reflects on the role of "informed imagination" to relate secrets and stories woven through the body into the soul, and stored in memory-baskets of the mind to become intergenerational history.
McNeill, Laurie, and John David Zuern. "Reading Digital Lives Generously." pp. 132–39.
Outlines a "generous" critical engagement with digital life narratives to reaffirm auto/biography studies' inclusive view of what counts as a "life" we are willing to learn how to read.
Outlines a "generous" critical engagement with digital life narratives to reaffirm auto/biography studies' inclusive view of what counts as a "life" we are willing to learn how to read.
Douglas, Kate. "Reading the Life Narratives of Children and Youth." pp. 140–48.
Gives a series of reflective, text-appropriate, ethical methodologies for working with diverse types of child and youth life narratives.
Gives a series of reflective, text-appropriate, ethical methodologies for working with diverse types of child and youth life narratives.
Jensen, Meg, and Siobhan Campbell. "Negotiated Truths and Iterative Practice in Action: The Women in Conflict Expressive Life Writing Project." pp. 149–60.
Provides an ancillary approach to evidence-gathering that might move beyond "do no harm" by supporting recovery from traumatic experiences.
Provides an ancillary approach to evidence-gathering that might move beyond "do no harm" by supporting recovery from traumatic experiences.
Graham, Pamela. "Researching Online Biographical Media and Death Narratives After the Digital Turn." pp. 161–68.
Thinks about how methods and ethics are entangled in the case of online death narratives, especially with regards to issues of privacy.
Thinks about how methods and ethics are entangled in the case of online death narratives, especially with regards to issues of privacy.
Rondot, Sarah Ray. "An Epistemological Approach to Trans* Autobiography." pp. 169–78.
Characterizes the entrance of contemporary trans* life narratives as a new historical moment in the epistemology of gender in which collective knowledges embrace diverse subjectivities.
Characterizes the entrance of contemporary trans* life narratives as a new historical moment in the epistemology of gender in which collective knowledges embrace diverse subjectivities.
Nayar, Pramod K. "Genetics and Auto/Biography." pp. 179–85.
Develops a framework for reading genomic auto/biographies with particular attention to their generic status, narrative characteristics, and role as memoirs.
Develops a framework for reading genomic auto/biographies with particular attention to their generic status, narrative characteristics, and role as memoirs.
Day, Ally. "Doing Disability Autobiography: Introducing Reading Group Methodology as Feminist Disability Praxis." pp. 186–92.
Finds that life stories addressing disability, along with their retellings and contradictions, are embodied theory about identity, self, illness, and power.
Finds that life stories addressing disability, along with their retellings and contradictions, are embodied theory about identity, self, illness, and power.
Kavanagh, Phillip, and Kate Douglas. "Sanctioning Subjectivity: Navigating Low-Risk Human Ethics Approval." pp. 193–99.
Discusses a case study of securing low-risk human ethics approval for a life writing PhD to show life writing practitioners how to work within institutional structures.
Discusses a case study of securing low-risk human ethics approval for a life writing PhD to show life writing practitioners how to work within institutional structures.
Maguire, Emma. "Girls' Auto/Biographical Media: The Importance of Audience Reception in Studying Undervalued Life Narrative." pp. 200–06.
Recommends that life writing scholars focus their researach on the audiences' role in shaping, reading, and collaborating on digital auto/biography.
Recommends that life writing scholars focus their researach on the audiences' role in shaping, reading, and collaborating on digital auto/biography.
Chansky, Ricia A. "Locating Diasporic Lives: Beyond Textual Boundaries." pp. 207–12.
Promotes trans-textual methodologies for reading diasporic lives to yield more nuanced and comprehensive understandings of lives that are in motion and mutable.
Promotes trans-textual methodologies for reading diasporic lives to yield more nuanced and comprehensive understandings of lives that are in motion and mutable.
Heimo, Anne. "The Diary as a Life Story: Working with Documents of Family and Migration." pp. 213–19.
Uses the diary as a historical source on migration, gender, class, or ethnicity, that also reveals people's subjective views of these categories of identity.
Uses the diary as a historical source on migration, gender, class, or ethnicity, that also reveals people's subjective views of these categories of identity.
Troeung, Y-Dang. "Between Forced Confession and Ethnic Autobiography." pp. 220–27.
Moves beyond oversimplified paradigms of ethnic authenticity in which texts by diasporic authors are dismissed as testimonials lacking historical, literary, or aesthetic value, or as inauthentic appropriations of marginalized experience.
Moves beyond oversimplified paradigms of ethnic authenticity in which texts by diasporic authors are dismissed as testimonials lacking historical, literary, or aesthetic value, or as inauthentic appropriations of marginalized experience.
Passeggi, Maria da Conceição, and Ecleide Cunico Furlanetto. "Autobiographical Research with Children." pp. 228–35.
Studies children's narratives about lived school experiences and affirms their capacity for autobiographical reflection and the importance of the knowledge they produce.
Studies children's narratives about lived school experiences and affirms their capacity for autobiographical reflection and the importance of the knowledge they produce.
Hornung, Alfred. "Ecocriticism and Life Narrative." pp. 236–43.
Reveals that resorting to life writing for the representation of ecological issues has created a new approach for discussing personal concerns similar for all people on earth.
Reveals that resorting to life writing for the representation of ecological issues has created a new approach for discussing personal concerns similar for all people on earth.
Couser, G. Thomas. "The Box in the Attic: Memoir, Methodology, and Family Archives." pp. 247–53.
Addresses the methodological and practical concerns life writing scholars need to attend to as physical family archives dwindle.
Addresses the methodological and practical concerns life writing scholars need to attend to as physical family archives dwindle.
Beauregard, Guy, Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, and Hsiu-Chuan Lee, editors. The Subject(s) of Human Rights: Recalibrating Asian/American Critique. Temple UP, 2019.
Beauregard, Guy, Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, and Hsiu-chuan Lee. "Introduction: The Subject(s) of Human Rights; Recalibrating Asian/American Critique." pp. 1–17.
Outlines three interrelated themes the essays in the collection address: how Asian/Americans become subjects of human rights violations, act as agents of change, and organize the production of knowledge about human rights.
Outlines three interrelated themes the essays in the collection address: how Asian/Americans become subjects of human rights violations, act as agents of change, and organize the production of knowledge about human rights.
Kim, Min-Jung. "Human Rights and South Korea: U.S. Imperialism, State Ideologies, and Camptown Prostitution." pp. 21–38.
Examines how U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula has been justified through humanitarian discourses and modes of South Korean governmentality.
Examines how U.S. military presence on the Korean Peninsula has been justified through humanitarian discourses and modes of South Korean governmentality.
Lee, Christopher. "After 1947: The Relative, the Refugee, and the Immigrant in the Chinese Canadian Family Narrative." pp. 39–55.
Draws attention to a profound reorganization of transpacific migrant lifeworlds linking Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Canada after 1947 through an analysis of the work of Chinese Canadian author Judy Fong Bates.
Draws attention to a profound reorganization of transpacific migrant lifeworlds linking Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Canada after 1947 through an analysis of the work of Chinese Canadian author Judy Fong Bates.
Izumi, Masumi. "The Vancouver Asahi Connection: (Re-)engagement of the Families of Returnees/Deportees in Japanese Canadian History." pp. 56–73.
Shows how the contemporary popularization of the Asahi baseball team enables new historical subjects to emerge.
Shows how the contemporary popularization of the Asahi baseball team enables new historical subjects to emerge.
Nguyen, Vinh. "A Journey to Freedom: Human Rights Discourse and Refugee Memory." pp. 74–92.
Discusses the proposed Memorial to the Victims of Communism in Ottawa to show how Vietnamese refugees actively mobilize human rights discourse to reshape the conditions of refuge(es), as Canada attempts to consolidate its image as a land of refuge while obscuring its complicity in supporting military violence in Asia.
Discusses the proposed Memorial to the Victims of Communism in Ottawa to show how Vietnamese refugees actively mobilize human rights discourse to reshape the conditions of refuge(es), as Canada attempts to consolidate its image as a land of refuge while obscuring its complicity in supporting military violence in Asia.
Wang, Yin. "'Every Bombed Village Is My Hometown': James Baldwin's Engagement with the American War in Vietnam." pp. 95–108.
Considers James Baldwin's engagement with the Vietnam War, foregrounding his theorization of colonialism inside and outside the United States.
Considers James Baldwin's engagement with the Vietnam War, foregrounding his theorization of colonialism inside and outside the United States.
Patterson, Christopher B. "Matronly Maids and Willful Women: Migrant Domestic Workers in the Plural." pp. 109–26.
Analyzes discourses of matronliness, policing of sexualities, and willfulness in Asia and the Pacific in Kristiana Kahakauwila and Mia Alvar's depictions of migrant workers.
Analyzes discourses of matronliness, policing of sexualities, and willfulness in Asia and the Pacific in Kristiana Kahakauwila and Mia Alvar's depictions of migrant workers.
Wu, Grace Hui-chuan. "(De)humanizing Labor: Southeast Asian Migrant Narratives in Taiwan." pp. 127–43.
Explores narrative representations of Southeast Asian migrant workers in Taiwan, complicating an assumed unidirectional movement from Asia to America.
Explores narrative representations of Southeast Asian migrant workers in Taiwan, complicating an assumed unidirectional movement from Asia to America.
Fukushima, Annie Isabel. "Factories, Farms, and Fisheries: Human Trafficking and Tethered Subjectivities from Asia to the Pacific." pp. 144–60.
Tracks how rights-based forms of subjectivity, spanning Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the continental United States, are inextricably tied to settler-colonial logics.
Tracks how rights-based forms of subjectivity, spanning Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the continental United States, are inextricably tied to settler-colonial logics.
Schlund-Vials, Cathy J. "Reframing Cambodia's Killing Fields: The Commemorative Limitations of Atrocity Tourism." pp. 163–79.
Highlights the limitations of Cambodia's genocide memorials that troublingly eschew a focus on the victims in favor of spectacularized representations of the perpetrators.
Highlights the limitations of Cambodia's genocide memorials that troublingly eschew a focus on the victims in favor of spectacularized representations of the perpetrators.
Karunanayake, Dinidu. "Reclaiming Home and 'Righting' Citizenships in Postwar Sri Lanka: Internal Displacement, Memory, and Human Rights." pp. 180–200.
Considers the aftermaths of human rights violations with a focus on internally displaced persons after the conclusion of the Sri Lankan war in 2009.
Considers the aftermaths of human rights violations with a focus on internally displaced persons after the conclusion of the Sri Lankan war in 2009.
Inoue, Mayumo. "Toward an Aesthetics and Erotics of Nonsovereign Rights in Okinawa." pp. 201–16.
Reads Sai Yoichi's film Let Him Rest in Peace and Shinjo Takekazu's poem "Rupture-Henoko" through Foucault's "new right" to disarticulate the biopolitics of the state.
Reads Sai Yoichi's film Let Him Rest in Peace and Shinjo Takekazu's poem "Rupture-Henoko" through Foucault's "new right" to disarticulate the biopolitics of the state.
Kim, Christine. "Figuring North Korean Lives: Reading at the Limits of Human Rights." pp. 217–32.
Considers how the life writing of North Korean defectors reveals the conceptual limitations of the human in order to rethink the guiding logics of human rights.
Considers how the life writing of North Korean defectors reveals the conceptual limitations of the human in order to rethink the guiding logics of human rights.
Thien, Madeleine. "Afterword: The Act of Listening." pp. 233–39.
Affirms the writer's task as a lifelong attempt to practice the art of listening.
Affirms the writer's task as a lifelong attempt to practice the art of listening.
Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 4, 2018. "M4BL and the Critical Matter of Black Lives," guest edited by Brittney Cooper and Treva B. Lindsey.
Cooper, Brittney, and Treva B. Lindsey. "Introduction to M4BL and the Critical Matter of Black Lives." pp. 731–40.
Interrogates the politics of Black life and Black living, and collectively documents a wide range of stories from multiple frequencies of contemporary Black life, death, community, healing, freedom-dreaming, and working.
Interrogates the politics of Black life and Black living, and collectively documents a wide range of stories from multiple frequencies of contemporary Black life, death, community, healing, freedom-dreaming, and working.
Chester, Tabitha Jamie Mary. "Movement for Black Love: The Building of Critical Communities through the Relational Geography of Movement Spaces." pp. 741–59.
Uses autoethnography to explore how relationship-building has kept the author accountable to the movement and helped sustain engagement in highly turbulent, emergent, and volatile spaces of protest and confrontation.
Uses autoethnography to explore how relationship-building has kept the author accountable to the movement and helped sustain engagement in highly turbulent, emergent, and volatile spaces of protest and confrontation.
Williams, Rhaisa Kameela. "Choreographies of the Ongoing: Episodes of Black Life, Events of Black Lives." pp. 760–76.
Weaves personal narratives with public events to theorize the complex feelings of regularly encountering spaces of black death and trauma, and deals with the visceral of the episodic, the ongoingness, the living-through often sidelined by the juridical promise of the event.
Weaves personal narratives with public events to theorize the complex feelings of regularly encountering spaces of black death and trauma, and deals with the visceral of the episodic, the ongoingness, the living-through often sidelined by the juridical promise of the event.
Mowatt, Rasul A. "Black Lives as Snuff: The Silent Complicity in Viewing Black Death." pp. 777–806.
Argues that though the ubiquity of social media fosters an increasingly mediated culture on the injustice of racialized violence, #BlackLivesMatter is a call for justice, as much about substance as about form.
Argues that though the ubiquity of social media fosters an increasingly mediated culture on the injustice of racialized violence, #BlackLivesMatter is a call for justice, as much about substance as about form.
Brooks, Robin. "R.I.P. Shirts or Shirts of the Movement: Reading the Death Paraphernalia of Black Lives." pp. 807–30.
Suggests that memorial shirts operate as a form of visual life writing that preserves memories, calls for action, and takes a public stance against racial injustice and anti-Black racial terror.
Suggests that memorial shirts operate as a form of visual life writing that preserves memories, calls for action, and takes a public stance against racial injustice and anti-Black racial terror.
Jones, Gillian Maris. "Black Lives Abroad: Encounters of Diasporic Solidarity in Brazil." pp. 831–55.
Outlines a worldwide Movement for Black Lives inspired by sentiments of solidarity among disparate communities based on a shared transnational vertigo of violence that describes the state of Black citizenship in Brazil and the United States.
Outlines a worldwide Movement for Black Lives inspired by sentiments of solidarity among disparate communities based on a shared transnational vertigo of violence that describes the state of Black citizenship in Brazil and the United States.
Morgan, Danielle Fuentes. "Visible Black Motherhood Is a Revolution." pp. 856–75.
Reveals how public black motherhood and maternity disrupt racist narratives of absenteeism and the destruction of black familial connections, and are, consequently, attacked as threats to the American investment in the racial hierarchy
Reveals how public black motherhood and maternity disrupt racist narratives of absenteeism and the destruction of black familial connections, and are, consequently, attacked as threats to the American investment in the racial hierarchy
Story, Kaila Adia. "Mama's Gon' Buy You a Mocking Bird: Why #BlackMothersStillMatter: A Short Genealogy of Black Mothers' Maternal Activism and Politicized Care." pp. 876–94.
Rearticulates how Black maternal activism shows that love enacted as politicized care dismantles gendered and racialized assumptions of Black mothers as an institution and a subjective identity.
Rearticulates how Black maternal activism shows that love enacted as politicized care dismantles gendered and racialized assumptions of Black mothers as an institution and a subjective identity.
Barlow, Jameta Nicole. "Restoring Optimal Black Mental Health and Reversing Intergenerational Trauma in an Era of Black Lives Matter." pp. 895–908.
Reflects on the implementation of an Emotional Emancipation Circle (EEC) with Black university student leaders actively engaged in social justice issues on an urban, predominantly white college campus in the Baltimore, Maryland area.
Reflects on the implementation of an Emotional Emancipation Circle (EEC) with Black university student leaders actively engaged in social justice issues on an urban, predominantly white college campus in the Baltimore, Maryland area.
Green, Kai M., Je Naé Taylor, Pascale Ifé Williams, and Christopher Roberts. "#BlackHealingMatters in the Time of #BlackLivesMatter." pp. 909–41.
Focuses on Black Youth Project 100's mobilization of a Black queer feminist lens to create a Black politic that holds at its core Black healing and a radical ethic of love.
Focuses on Black Youth Project 100's mobilization of a Black queer feminist lens to create a Black politic that holds at its core Black healing and a radical ethic of love.
Hill, Marc Lamont. "From Ferguson to Palestine: Reimagining Transnational Solidarity Through Difference." pp. 942–57.
Yields an understanding of the contours and limits of Black-Palestinian political solidarity, and the transnational and anti-colonial political possibilities of the Movement for Black Lives.
Yields an understanding of the contours and limits of Black-Palestinian political solidarity, and the transnational and anti-colonial political possibilities of the Movement for Black Lives.
Poe, Tef. "Ferguson: An Identity Politics Liberation Manifesto." pp. 958–81.
Presents an analysis of how we treat women as freedom fighters, while also understanding that our intersectionalities do not solely reside within gender and sexuality and also in the realities of a lack of education, resources, and unity dominating these discussions within our communities.
Presents an analysis of how we treat women as freedom fighters, while also understanding that our intersectionalities do not solely reside within gender and sexuality and also in the realities of a lack of education, resources, and unity dominating these discussions within our communities.
Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 1, 2019, "International Year in Review," edited by John David Zuern.
This collection of short, site-specific essays on the year's most influential publications in life writing includes entries from Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Estonia, France, the Gulf Cooperation Council, India, Italy, Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, the Netherlands, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, South Africa, Spain, the UK, and two essays from the US, one on biography and one on memoir.
This collection of short, site-specific essays on the year's most influential publications in life writing includes entries from Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Estonia, France, the Gulf Cooperation Council, India, Italy, Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, the Netherlands, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, South Africa, Spain, the UK, and two essays from the US, one on biography and one on memoir.
Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 3, 2019, special issue on "Biographic Mediation: On the Uses of Personal Disclosure in Bureaucracy and Politics," guest edited by Ebony Coletu.
Coletu, Ebony. "Introduction to Biographic Mediation: On the Uses of Personal Disclosure in Bureaucracy and Politics." pp. 465–85.
Introduces the concept of biographic mediation and the articles in the issue by scholars and activists who are redefining the scope of rights that are narrowed on paper, while drawing attention to mechanisms for surveillance operating through biographic forms.
Introduces the concept of biographic mediation and the articles in the issue by scholars and activists who are redefining the scope of rights that are narrowed on paper, while drawing attention to mechanisms for surveillance operating through biographic forms.
Jones, Michelle. "Biographic Mediation and the Formerly Incarcerated: How Dissembling and Disclosure Counter the Extended Consequences of Criminal Convictions." pp. 486–513.
Shows how formerly incarcerated people perform dissemblance and manage disclosure to counter the biographic mediation processes that weaponize stigma as the demand for disclosure re-adjudicates criminality upon them.
Shows how formerly incarcerated people perform dissemblance and manage disclosure to counter the biographic mediation processes that weaponize stigma as the demand for disclosure re-adjudicates criminality upon them.
Ahmed, Sara. "A Complaint Biography." pp. 514–23.
This republished entry from Sara Ahmed's public research site, Feminist Killjoys, proposes alternative forms of listening and accountability and models a listening technique that takes place outside of the grievance protocol, while reflecting on it publicly.
This republished entry from Sara Ahmed's public research site, Feminist Killjoys, proposes alternative forms of listening and accountability and models a listening technique that takes place outside of the grievance protocol, while reflecting on it publicly.
Wane, Aly, and Ebony Coletu. "Lives on the Line." pp. 524–35.
Highlights a call for ethical reflexivity, models an alternative to state-sponsored biographic mediation, and employs Black feminist analysis to argue for the right to exist without permission, while using self-disclosure to imagine shared futures.
Highlights a call for ethical reflexivity, models an alternative to state-sponsored biographic mediation, and employs Black feminist analysis to argue for the right to exist without permission, while using self-disclosure to imagine shared futures.
Plamadeala, Cristina. "The Securitate File as a Record of Psuchegraphy." pp. 536–60.
Analyzes psuchegraphy as a form of biographic mediation communist Romania's secret police used to discover what would make someone break, and relates psuchegraphy to Antonie Palamadeala's novel Trei Ceasuri în Iad [Three hours in hell].
Analyzes psuchegraphy as a form of biographic mediation communist Romania's secret police used to discover what would make someone break, and relates psuchegraphy to Antonie Palamadeala's novel Trei Ceasuri în Iad [Three hours in hell].
Fukushima, Annie Isabel. "Has someone taken your passport? Everyday Surveillance of the Migrant Laborer as Trafficked Subject." pp. 561–85.
Uses a scavenger methodology to trace how passports come to matter in anti-trafficking narratives to explain how the discursive power of a missing passport in public education campaigns to end human trafficking expands citizen powers of interrogation.
Uses a scavenger methodology to trace how passports come to matter in anti-trafficking narratives to explain how the discursive power of a missing passport in public education campaigns to end human trafficking expands citizen powers of interrogation.
Romero, Mercy. "Guidelines for Squatting: Concerned Citizens of North Camden, 1978–1990." pp. 586–609.
Considers how Concerned Citizens of North Camden created a biographically mediated counter-bureaucracy that transformed outlaw practices into options for collectively holding property and demanding improvements.
Considers how Concerned Citizens of North Camden created a biographically mediated counter-bureaucracy that transformed outlaw practices into options for collectively holding property and demanding improvements.
Gilmore, Leigh. "Frames of Witness: The Kavanaugh Hearings, Survivor Testimony, and #MeToo." pp. 610–23.
Argues that three frames of witness competed in the 2018 Kavanaugh hearings: Brett Kavanaugh's life story, Christine Blasey Ford's survivor testimony, and the cultural frame of #MeToo, underlining how vulnerable subjects cross into testimonial spaces.
Argues that three frames of witness competed in the 2018 Kavanaugh hearings: Brett Kavanaugh's life story, Christine Blasey Ford's survivor testimony, and the cultural frame of #MeToo, underlining how vulnerable subjects cross into testimonial spaces.
Thomas, Rhondda Robinson. "Call My Name: Using Biographical Storytelling to Reconceptualize the History of African Americans at Clemson University." pp. 624–52.
Asserts that biographic accountability is a multifaceted way to acknowledge and commemorate Black labor as a critical component in building and sustaining higher education institutions, while it offers documentation for redress and reparations.
Asserts that biographic accountability is a multifaceted way to acknowledge and commemorate Black labor as a critical component in building and sustaining higher education institutions, while it offers documentation for redress and reparations.
Coletu, Ebony, and Amita Swadhin. "Mirror Memoirs: Amita Swadhin on Survivor Storytelling and the Mediation of Rape Culture." pp. 653–68.
Reflects on biographic mediation as operating within Mirror Memoirs, explaining how the collection of "inconvenient" stories about survivorship can help transform institutional practices of profiling that disappear the most vulnerable targets of violence.
Reflects on biographic mediation as operating within Mirror Memoirs, explaining how the collection of "inconvenient" stories about survivorship can help transform institutional practices of profiling that disappear the most vulnerable targets of violence.
McKee, Kimberly. "The Consumption of Adoption and Adoptees in American Middlebrow Culture." pp. 669–92.
Explores the reunion of Korean adoptee twins Samantha Futerman and Anaïs Bordier and interrogates the broader societal and historical conditions of international Korean adoption that made their separation possible.
Explores the reunion of Korean adoptee twins Samantha Futerman and Anaïs Bordier and interrogates the broader societal and historical conditions of international Korean adoption that made their separation possible.
Morrison, Aimée. "(Un)Reasonable, (Un)Necessary, and (In)Appropriate: Biographic Mediation of Neurodivergence in Academic Accommodations." pp. 693–719.
Posits that what is at stake in the biographic mediation of disability in the academic workplace is the question of what disabled lives mean, rather than the determination of who gets what through diagnosis, disclosure and verification, and accommodation.
Posits that what is at stake in the biographic mediation of disability in the academic workplace is the question of what disabled lives mean, rather than the determination of who gets what through diagnosis, disclosure and verification, and accommodation.
Black, Alison L., and Susanne Garvis, editors. Lived Experiences of Women in Academia: Metaphors, Manifestos and Memoir. Routledge, 2018.
Black, Alison L., and Susanne Garvis. "Preface." pp. xiv–xviii.
Outlines how the writers, women from diverse backgrounds working in the academy, create assemblages of life through complex dimensions of life and work, voices and identities, mothering and motherhood, and experiences of career through various forms of storytelling.
Outlines how the writers, women from diverse backgrounds working in the academy, create assemblages of life through complex dimensions of life and work, voices and identities, mothering and motherhood, and experiences of career through various forms of storytelling.
Mayes, Eve. "Uncreatively Writing Women's Lives in Academia." pp. 1–12.
Draws on collaborative and interventionist methods to write women's lives "uncreatively."
Draws on collaborative and interventionist methods to write women's lives "uncreatively."
Bueskens, Petra, and Kim Toffoletti. "Mothers, Scholars and Feminists: Inside and Outside the Australian Academic System." pp. 13–22.
Addresses the struggles and silence around motherhood in the neoliberal university, and suggests alternative ways of conceptualizing academia and feminist scholarship.
Addresses the struggles and silence around motherhood in the neoliberal university, and suggests alternative ways of conceptualizing academia and feminist scholarship.
Kelly, Frances. "The Lecturer's New Clothes: An Academic Life, in Textiles." pp. 23–31.
Reflects on the complexities of an academic life and identity through the medium of clothing, while conveying the constitutive and associative dimensions of clothing.
Reflects on the complexities of an academic life and identity through the medium of clothing, while conveying the constitutive and associative dimensions of clothing.
Di Niro, Corinna, and Amelia Walker. "You're Doctor What? Challenges for Creative Arts Research in a Culture of Binaries." pp. 32–44.
Considers the impact and implications of changing processes of research evaluation, arts funding cuts, and gender-based social norms in a duoethnography in the form of a play script.
Considers the impact and implications of changing processes of research evaluation, arts funding cuts, and gender-based social norms in a duoethnography in the form of a play script.
Grant, Barbara. "'Going to see': An Academic Woman Researching Her Own Kind." pp. 45–54.
Articulates how the stories of other academic women and her own are always/already entangled.
Articulates how the stories of other academic women and her own are always/already entangled.
Dwyer, Rachel, and Libby Flynn. "'If these walls could talk': Looking In, Walking Out, and Reimagining a Broken System." pp. 55–64.
Unpacks issues of felt accountability, burnout, work-life balance, and gender equity.
Unpacks issues of felt accountability, burnout, work-life balance, and gender equity.
Bosanquet, Agnes. "Motherhood and Academia: A Story of Bodily Fluids and Going with the Flow." pp. 65–75.
Engages with metaphors of mucus and bodily fluids to explore the shared space and loss of boundaries of academic motherhood.
Engages with metaphors of mucus and bodily fluids to explore the shared space and loss of boundaries of academic motherhood.
Muflichah, Siti, Dewi Adriani, and Elizabeth Mackinlay. "Taking a Trip Through and with the Sisterhood of the Global South: Storying Our Experiences as Female Academics in Indonesia and Australia." pp. 76–86.
Shares their experiences as mothers, academics, and research students in the Global South.
Shares their experiences as mothers, academics, and research students in the Global South.
Mays, Jennifer. "In the Spirit of Shared Solidarity: Women in Academia and Transformation." pp. 87–97.
Defines the academic endeavor as a passion upheld by a deep commitment to critical thinking and transformative action that supports working in solidarity.
Defines the academic endeavor as a passion upheld by a deep commitment to critical thinking and transformative action that supports working in solidarity.
Nislev, Eva, and Melissa Cain. "Playing in the corridors of academia." pp. 98–108.
Describes the balancing act that is the play between academia and personal lives.
Describes the balancing act that is the play between academia and personal lives.
Walton, Jo Ann. "An academic career: looking back and looking forward." pp. 109–18.
Recognizes what her career meant and offers suggestions to those starting out in the academy.
Recognizes what her career meant and offers suggestions to those starting out in the academy.
Arnoldi, Emsie, and Rachelle Bosua. "Identity and Inclusion in Academia: Voices of Migrant Women." pp. 119–29.
The authors reconceptualize past experiences as migrant women, and engage in processes of self-discovery that assist with self-care, motivation, and hope.
The authors reconceptualize past experiences as migrant women, and engage in processes of self-discovery that assist with self-care, motivation, and hope.
Anonymous. "Trauma in the Academy." pp. 130–39.
The author writes about being physically threatened by a colleague and considers how to make the academy a safe and productive workplace.
The author writes about being physically threatened by a colleague and considers how to make the academy a safe and productive workplace.
Holden, Livia. "A Woman in Academia: … and What About the Children?" pp. 140–51.
Shares her family experiences in a polyphonic narrative about the combination of motherhood and career in three continents across six countries.
Shares her family experiences in a polyphonic narrative about the combination of motherhood and career in three continents across six countries.
Burchard, Melissa, and Keya Maitra. "Not a Matter of Will: A Narrative and Cross-cultural Exploration of Maternal Ambivalence." pp. 152–60.
Challenges the characterization of ambivalence in philosophy as a problem of will or insufficient coherence of identity, contrasting these ideas against their personal narratives of maternal issues.
Challenges the characterization of ambivalence in philosophy as a problem of will or insufficient coherence of identity, contrasting these ideas against their personal narratives of maternal issues.
Bruce, Rosie. "Being a Mother, Becoming a University Teacher: Traversing the Terrain to Knowing Oneself." pp. 161–70.
Explores the author's transition into the academy, from childhood through motherhood, as a non-English speaking immigrant living with a parent who had a severe mental illness.
Explores the author's transition into the academy, from childhood through motherhood, as a non-English speaking immigrant living with a parent who had a severe mental illness.
Netolicky, Deborah M., Naomi Barnes, and Amanda Hefferman. "Metaphors for Women's Experiences of Early Career Academia: Buffy, Alice, and Frankenstein's Creature." pp. 171–80.
Highlights the power of metaphor as a frame for defining reality, structuring experience, and understanding intangibles like feeling and experiences.
Highlights the power of metaphor as a frame for defining reality, structuring experience, and understanding intangibles like feeling and experiences.
Crimmins, Gail. "The Double Life of a Casual Academic." pp. 181–89.
Offers an autoethnographic narrative of her life as a casual female academic seeking ongoing academic appointment, exposing the myth that academia operates as a meritocracy.
Offers an autoethnographic narrative of her life as a casual female academic seeking ongoing academic appointment, exposing the myth that academia operates as a meritocracy.
Black, Alison L. et al. "Afterword." pp. 190–91.
Ends with a short collective manifesto gathered from the essays in the collection.
Ends with a short collective manifesto gathered from the essays in the collection.
Black, Alison L., and Susanne Garvis, editors. Women Activating Agency in Academia: Metaphors, Manifestos and Memoir. Routledge, 2018.
Black, Alison L., and Susanne Garvis. "Preface." xiv–xvii.
Catalogues key strategies women use to "be differently" in academe: connecting through writing, responsive relationships, resilience and joy, and an ethics of caring, with such methods as writing groups, guided autobiography, auto-ethnography, collective activism, and slow scholarship.
Catalogues key strategies women use to "be differently" in academe: connecting through writing, responsive relationships, resilience and joy, and an ethics of caring, with such methods as writing groups, guided autobiography, auto-ethnography, collective activism, and slow scholarship.
Burchard, Melissa, Amy Joy Lanou, Leah Greden Mathews, Karin Peterson, and Alice Weldon. "Telling Stories, Gaining Wisdom: Putting our Voices into our Practice." pp. 1–10.
Reflects on the impact of a collective process of supporting individual development and a more inclusive and responsive academy.
Reflects on the impact of a collective process of supporting individual development and a more inclusive and responsive academy.
Barker, Melissa, Ann Webster-Wright, Deanne Gannaway, and Wendy Green. "You're Not Alone: Discovering the Power of Sharing Life Narratives as Academic Women." pp. 11–22.
Shares the impact their support group had on their academic careers and collaborative journey.
Shares the impact their support group had on their academic careers and collaborative journey.
Black, Alison L. "Responding to Longings for Slow Scholarship: Writing Ourselves into Being." pp. 23–34.
Documents the importance of slow scholarship and spaces for disclosure in the academy.
Documents the importance of slow scholarship and spaces for disclosure in the academy.
Harju-Luukkainen, Heidi. "'We Would Love to Have you Over … ': Building Career Capital in a New Academic Environment." pp. 35–44.
Maps her attempts to build vertical and horizontal career capital in a new academic environment.
Maps her attempts to build vertical and horizontal career capital in a new academic environment.
Mahoney, Melissa. "How Yoga Taught Me About Vocation." pp. 45–53.
Explores the impact of studying yoga on the evolving self and overall engagement with agency.
Explores the impact of studying yoga on the evolving self and overall engagement with agency.
Somerville, Margaret, and Sarah Crinall. "Intergenerational Bodies: Women's Knowledge Production in Supervisory Relations." pp. 54–66.
Turns to post-qualitative research and bodies as sites of knowledge formation to allow a non-linear, non-dichotomous knowledge making that jumps between the generational relations.
Turns to post-qualitative research and bodies as sites of knowledge formation to allow a non-linear, non-dichotomous knowledge making that jumps between the generational relations.
Charteris, Jennifer, Adele Nye, and Marguerite Jones. "Feasible Utopias and Affective Flows in the Academy: A Mobilisation of Hope and Optimism." pp. 67–78.
Provides insights from poetic personal narratives by women scholars within a politics of context.
Provides insights from poetic personal narratives by women scholars within a politics of context.
Morley, Christine. "Beyond Silence and Conformity: A Reflection on Academic Activism as Resistance to Managerialism in the Contemporary University." pp. 79–88.
Retells her experience of working as a critical work educator and trade unionist.
Retells her experience of working as a critical work educator and trade unionist.
Michell, Dee. "Academia as Therapy." pp. 89–99.
Confronts mental illness in academia and suggests how to develop academic resiliency.
Confronts mental illness in academia and suggests how to develop academic resiliency.
Donnison, Sharn, and Sorrel Penn-Edwards. "Travellers: Traversing the Academic Landscape: A Dialogue." pp. 100–10.
Considers a professional and personal partnership that helped develop resilience and confidence.
Considers a professional and personal partnership that helped develop resilience and confidence.
White, Peta, Sandra Wooltorton, and Marilyn Palmer. "Confronting, Collaborating, and Crafting: An Enlivening Methodology for Academic Ecojustice Activism." pp. 111–22.
Theorizes critical events that deconstruct and reconstruct academic ecojustice activism.
Theorizes critical events that deconstruct and reconstruct academic ecojustice activism.
Jensen-Clayton, Cecily. "Women Writing to Ourselves: Rescuing the Girl Child from Androcentricity." pp. 123–32.
Suggests a genre of female writing to disrupt androcentric and neoliberal constructions.
Suggests a genre of female writing to disrupt androcentric and neoliberal constructions.
Macleod, Rena. "Embracing the Power of the Self as a Female Scholar." pp. 133–44.
Encourages a focus on journeys into the academy to foreground women's authentic perspectives.
Encourages a focus on journeys into the academy to foreground women's authentic perspectives.
Green, Nicole, Cherry Stewart, and Brenda Wolodko. "Vulnerability: An Uncomfortable Means to a Positive Place." pp. 145–56.
Works with vulnerabilities and metaphors of transformation to create supportive relationships and foster a greater sense of belonging, exploration, and imagination.
Works with vulnerabilities and metaphors of transformation to create supportive relationships and foster a greater sense of belonging, exploration, and imagination.
Engstrom, Sandra. "PhD: Pivotal Heart Development." pp. 157–63.
Explores the concept of location as an opportunity to develop a reflective space to focus on one's own voice and thoughts.
Explores the concept of location as an opportunity to develop a reflective space to focus on one's own voice and thoughts.
Backhouse, Judy. "Stretching the Elastic: Can We Change the Heart of University Management?" pp. 164–73.
Draws on institutional theory to explain why women seek satisfaction in lower status positions.
Draws on institutional theory to explain why women seek satisfaction in lower status positions.
Haynes, Rachael, and Courtney Pedersen. "To Care for Self and Others: A Collaborative Conversation." pp. 174–84.
Advocates for care in teaching and research, and engagement with worlds beyond academia.
Advocates for care in teaching and research, and engagement with worlds beyond academia.
Henderson, Linda. "I Am the Compliant Academic." pp. 185–201.
Argues for ways of being a compliant academic that can lead to more fulfilling ways of working.
Argues for ways of being a compliant academic that can lead to more fulfilling ways of working.
Black, Alison L. et al. "Afterword." pp. 202–03.
A closing collective manifesto gathered from the essays in the collection.
A closing collective manifesto gathered from the essays in the collection.
Bradford, Richard, editor. A Companion to Literary Biography. Wiley Blackwell, 2019.
Bradford, Richard. "Introduction." pp. 1–5.
Introduces the book's aim to help scholars and students bridge the gap between literary biography as a popular genre and its relevance for the academic study of literature.
Introduces the book's aim to help scholars and students bridge the gap between literary biography as a popular genre and its relevance for the academic study of literature.
Darcy, Jane. "The Emergence of Literary Biography." pp. 9–24.
Traces the birth of literary biography at the close of the seventeenth century and its expansion through the eighteenth.
Traces the birth of literary biography at the close of the seventeenth century and its expansion through the eighteenth.
Keanie, Andrew. "Lasting First Impressions: On the Origins of Ambivalent Attitudes to the Lake Poets, Cockney Keats, and Satanic Shelley." pp. 25–43.
Deals with how accounts of Romantic writers' lives interact with their literary works.
Deals with how accounts of Romantic writers' lives interact with their literary works.
North, Julian. "How to Be an Author: Victorian Literary Biography c. 1830–1880." pp. 45–61.
Examines how Victorian literary biography shaped ideas about what it meant to be an author and how literary biography as a genre shaped the conditions of authorship.
Examines how Victorian literary biography shaped ideas about what it meant to be an author and how literary biography as a genre shaped the conditions of authorship.
Regis, Amber K. "Un/making the Victorians: Literary Biography, 1880–1930." pp. 63–86.
Looks at peer-on-peer literary biography from the end of the nineteenth century into the twentieth and its modernist unmaking.
Looks at peer-on-peer literary biography from the end of the nineteenth century into the twentieth and its modernist unmaking.
Davison, Claire. "'Aerial Creations of the Poets'? New Biography and the BBC in the 1930s." pp. 87–106.
Considers how the popularity of literary biography was reflected in its expansion into non-print media, most significantly radio, during the early twentieth century.
Considers how the popularity of literary biography was reflected in its expansion into non-print media, most significantly radio, during the early twentieth century.
Salwak, Dale. "Literary Biography in the Twentieth Century." pp. 107–20.
Reflects on twentieth century developments in literary biography and their implications for modern and contemporary literary biography.
Reflects on twentieth century developments in literary biography and their implications for modern and contemporary literary biography.
Howes, Craig. "Ethics and Literary Biography." pp. 123–42.
Argues that cultural and personal attitudes about literature and life narratives shape ethical evaluations regarding whether or not the literary biography, the biographical subject, and the biographer are "good."
Argues that cultural and personal attitudes about literature and life narratives shape ethical evaluations regarding whether or not the literary biography, the biographical subject, and the biographer are "good."
McVeigh, Jane. "Concerns about Facts and Form in Literary Biography." pp. 143–58.
Addresses concerns about the way literary biography negotiates descriptive and biographical expectations against literary and rhetorical aspirations.
Addresses concerns about the way literary biography negotiates descriptive and biographical expectations against literary and rhetorical aspirations.
Ferres, Kay. "Women with a Theory: Feminism and Biography." pp. 159–74.
Explores how feminist readings of Virginia Woolf's life and work have shaped new narratives of women's lives and reconfigured literary biography.
Explores how feminist readings of Virginia Woolf's life and work have shaped new narratives of women's lives and reconfigured literary biography.
Lyons, Paul K. "The Role of Diaries in the Development of Literary Biography." pp. 175–93.
Shows how diarists and diaries influenced the development of literary biography.
Shows how diarists and diaries influenced the development of literary biography.
Underwood, James. "Blurred Boundaries: Literary Biography, Literary Autobiography, and Evidence." pp. 195–212.
Focuses on the lives and afterlives of Thomas Hardy, Anne Sexton, Ted Hughes, and Elizabeth Bishop to consider how literary texts are treated as (auto)biographical.
Focuses on the lives and afterlives of Thomas Hardy, Anne Sexton, Ted Hughes, and Elizabeth Bishop to consider how literary texts are treated as (auto)biographical.
Morra, Linda M. "Reading and Interpreting: The Archival Legacies of Canadian Women Writers." pp. 213–27.
Analyzes four Canadian women writers' archives—Pat Lowther, Emily Carr, Jane Rule, and M. NourbeSe Phillip—to showcase the complexities their biographers face as they use these archives that were uniquely shaped or impaired in relation to others.
Analyzes four Canadian women writers' archives—Pat Lowther, Emily Carr, Jane Rule, and M. NourbeSe Phillip—to showcase the complexities their biographers face as they use these archives that were uniquely shaped or impaired in relation to others.
Beer, Anna. "Johnny and Bess: Life Writing and Gender." pp. 229–43.
Examines to what extent gender determines the kinds of simplifications that appear in life writing by analyzing biographies about Lady Elizabeth Ralegh and John Milton.
Examines to what extent gender determines the kinds of simplifications that appear in life writing by analyzing biographies about Lady Elizabeth Ralegh and John Milton.
Devine, Rebecca. "'The Man's Life in the Letters of the Man': Larkin, Letters, and Literary Biography." pp. 245–62.
Considers how letters reveal the performative aspects of self-representation in the case of Philip Larkin's epistolary relationships with Kingsley Amis and Monica Jones.
Considers how letters reveal the performative aspects of self-representation in the case of Philip Larkin's epistolary relationships with Kingsley Amis and Monica Jones.
Tegla, Emanuela. "J. M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Style in Autobiography." pp. 263–74.
Scrutinizes the debatable ambiguity of Coetze's Boyhood, Youth, and Summertime, and determines that they reflect the writer's style and approach to writing.
Scrutinizes the debatable ambiguity of Coetze's Boyhood, Youth, and Summertime, and determines that they reflect the writer's style and approach to writing.
McVeigh, Jane. "The Experience of Archives: Richmal Crompton and Others." pp. 275–89.
Foregrounds archival discoveries about Richmal Crompton to highlight the genealogical nature of archival research and the influence researchers exert in the process.
Foregrounds archival discoveries about Richmal Crompton to highlight the genealogical nature of archival research and the influence researchers exert in the process.
Gonzalez, Madelena. "Disappearing into the Front Page: The Case of Salman Rushdie and the Postmodern Memoir." pp. 291–307.
Considers an instance of an author's life becoming a real-life narrative of violence and ideological polarization.
Considers an instance of an author's life becoming a real-life narrative of violence and ideological polarization.
Bell, Emily. "Evidence and Invention: The Materials of Literary Biography." pp. 309–23.
Explores the tensions between speculation and evidential material in biography.
Explores the tensions between speculation and evidential material in biography.
De Ornellas, Kevin. "Mustabeens and Mightabeens: The Unknowability of English Renaissance Playwrights." pp. 325–37.
Concludes that English Renaissance drama study continually yields new information, but not about the dramatists' thoughts or the relationships between intention and text.
Concludes that English Renaissance drama study continually yields new information, but not about the dramatists' thoughts or the relationships between intention and text.
Bradford, Richard. "Literary Biography, Literary Studies, and Theory: An Uneasy Relationship." pp. 339–56.
Surveys some key texts in academic criticism and theory and picks out an antipathy toward literary biography endemic to literary studies in universities.
Surveys some key texts in academic criticism and theory and picks out an antipathy toward literary biography endemic to literary studies in universities.
Stannard, Martin. "Estate Management: Evelyn Waugh and Muriel Spark." pp. 357–72.
Intertwines autobiography and the study of biographical practice to tell about the difficulties of gaining access to writers' archives and to ponder who owns a literary life.
Intertwines autobiography and the study of biographical practice to tell about the difficulties of gaining access to writers' archives and to ponder who owns a literary life.
Turner, Marion. "Chaucer." pp. 375–90.
Traces the history of Chaucer biography and the ideological investments of biographers in constructing a particular image of him.
Traces the history of Chaucer biography and the ideological investments of biographers in constructing a particular image of him.
Potter, Lois. "Writing Shakespeare's Life." pp. 391–404.
Reflects on the experience of writing a literary biography of Shakespeare.
Reflects on the experience of writing a literary biography of Shakespeare.
Hancock, Tim. "John Donne." pp. 405–22.
Argues that previous accounts of Donne's life and work have been notably partial, in both senses of the word, and that this presents a challenge for critical biographers.
Argues that previous accounts of Donne's life and work have been notably partial, in both senses of the word, and that this presents a challenge for critical biographers.
Ward, James. "Jonathan Swift." pp. 423–35.
Annual Bibliography, 2018–2019 Considers fictional and dramatic representations of Swift's life alongside avowedly factual writing, beginning with Swift's own contributions to both traditions.
Annual Bibliography, 2018–2019 Considers fictional and dramatic representations of Swift's life alongside avowedly factual writing, beginning with Swift's own contributions to both traditions.
Baines, Paul. "Life and Death in the Literary Biographies of Pope and His Circle." pp. 437–53.
Argues that Popean biography, in particular, demonstrates the fragile, contingent process by which the modern literary biography emerged.
Argues that Popean biography, in particular, demonstrates the fragile, contingent process by which the modern literary biography emerged.
Lockwood, Thomas. "Richardson and Fielding." pp. 455–68.
Seeks to account for the relationships between the life stories of Richardson and Fielding, the novels they wrote, and the stories others later wrote about their lives.
Seeks to account for the relationships between the life stories of Richardson and Fielding, the novels they wrote, and the stories others later wrote about their lives.
Jędrzejewski, Jan. "Biography as Myth-Making: Obfuscation and Invention in Victorian and Post-Victorian Literary Biography." pp. 469–88.
Suggests that the narrative and rhetorical devices used to shape the public perception of a subject's character and personality and present an accurate record of a life mirror aesthetic developments in nineteenth and early twentieth century storytelling.
Suggests that the narrative and rhetorical devices used to shape the public perception of a subject's character and personality and present an accurate record of a life mirror aesthetic developments in nineteenth and early twentieth century storytelling.
Batchelor, John. "Dickens, Tennyson, Kipling." pp. 489–509.
Presents the biographies of Dickens, Tennyson, and Kipling as histories of the ages in which they lived and wrote and the societies and audiences for which they wrote.
Presents the biographies of Dickens, Tennyson, and Kipling as histories of the ages in which they lived and wrote and the societies and audiences for which they wrote.
Keanie, Andrew. "Would the Real Mr. Eliot Please Stand Up?" pp. 511–27.
Considers how T. S. Eliot's success at concealing personal details about his life shaped biographies about him.
Considers how T. S. Eliot's success at concealing personal details about his life shaped biographies about him.
McCourt, John. "After Ellmann: The State of Joyce Biography." pp. 529–45.
Explains that knowing where Joyce's real life ends and the fiction begins is the challenge his readers, critics, and biographers face.
Explains that knowing where Joyce's real life ends and the fiction begins is the challenge his readers, critics, and biographers face.
Rollyson, Carl. "Literary Biography and the De-Canonization of Amy Lowell." pp. 547–63.
Describes writing Amy Lowell's biography as a project aimed at restoring a full sense of the whole person in response to the distorted ones which previous biographies offered.
Describes writing Amy Lowell's biography as a project aimed at restoring a full sense of the whole person in response to the distorted ones which previous biographies offered.
James, Andrew. "Reviewing the Lives and Works of Philip Larkin and Kingsley Amis." pp. 565–79.
Explores how biography has made us reconsider Larkin and Amis, while offering suggestions for a more constructive utilization of biography in literary appreciation.
Explores how biography has made us reconsider Larkin and Amis, while offering suggestions for a more constructive utilization of biography in literary appreciation.
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture, vol. 20, no. 5, 2018, special issue on "Life, Illness and Disabilities in Life Writing and Medical Narratives," edited by I-Chun Wang, Jonathan Locke Hart, Cindy Chopoidalo, and David Porter.
Wang, I-Chun, and Jonathan Locke Hart. "Introduction to Voices of Life, Illness and Disabilities in Life Writing and Medical Narratives." n.p.
Introduces the eleven essays that question a traditional sense of self and provoke further debates on human values and facets of identity formation.
Introduces the eleven essays that question a traditional sense of self and provoke further debates on human values and facets of identity formation.
Couser, G. Thomas. "Illness, Disability, and Ethical Life Writing." n.p.
Discusses the value, and the ethical challenges, of life writing concerning illness and disability.
Discusses the value, and the ethical challenges, of life writing concerning illness and disability.
Chopoidalo, Cindy. "Shakespeare's Henry VI and Depression." n.p.
Traces the early Shakespearean treatment of melancholy and depression, and how this character type has been codified in various periods of literary and medical history.
Traces the early Shakespearean treatment of melancholy and depression, and how this character type has been codified in various periods of literary and medical history.
Lebdai, Benaouda. "Albert Camus' Social, Cultural and Political Migrations." n.p.
Revisits Albert Camus' posthumous autofiction The First Man to understand his psychological and social migrations and his focus on the exclusive relation between Algeria and France in its colonial period, from a cultural and political viewpoint.
Revisits Albert Camus' posthumous autofiction The First Man to understand his psychological and social migrations and his focus on the exclusive relation between Algeria and France in its colonial period, from a cultural and political viewpoint.
Hart, Jonathan Locke. "The Voices of Life and Death in Shakespeare's Narrative Poems." n.p.
Examines how Shakespeare's narrative poems discuss life and death and, to some extent, health and illness.
Examines how Shakespeare's narrative poems discuss life and death and, to some extent, health and illness.
Wu, Shang. "Hardship and Healing through the Lens of Cultural Translation in Peter Hessler's Travel Memoir River Town." n.p.
Demonstrates the flexibility of "cultural translation" as a tool to read cross-cultural travel writing for insights on living in cross-cultural settings in Hessler's account of a twoyear stay as a Peace Corps teacher in Fuling, a remote town in southwestern China.
Demonstrates the flexibility of "cultural translation" as a tool to read cross-cultural travel writing for insights on living in cross-cultural settings in Hessler's account of a twoyear stay as a Peace Corps teacher in Fuling, a remote town in southwestern China.
Lin, Chin-ju. "The Colonized Masculinity and Cultural Politics of Seediq Bale." n.p.
Discusses the cultural representations of Seediq culture in a Taiwanese blockbuster movie, which delineates the last Indigenous insurrection against Japanese colonialism.
Discusses the cultural representations of Seediq culture in a Taiwanese blockbuster movie, which delineates the last Indigenous insurrection against Japanese colonialism.
Porter, David Andrew. "Reminiscing about Latin: Cases of Life-writing and the Classical Tradition." n.p.
Explores how Latin literary traditions affect professional and accidental writers, from the Renaissance scholar Isaac Casaubon to the Jamaican poet Francis Williams, in order to draw attention to the humor, irony, and conflict in such lived experiences and writing.
Explores how Latin literary traditions affect professional and accidental writers, from the Renaissance scholar Isaac Casaubon to the Jamaican poet Francis Williams, in order to draw attention to the humor, irony, and conflict in such lived experiences and writing.
Theis, Mary E. "More Migrants with Nowhere to Go?" n.p.
Reframes stories of the Tai Dam, who migrated from Vietnam and Laos to Thailand and to Iowa in 1975 after the wars in Southeast Asia, in the context of US immigration policies and future demographic consequences of climate change on these policies.
Reframes stories of the Tai Dam, who migrated from Vietnam and Laos to Thailand and to Iowa in 1975 after the wars in Southeast Asia, in the context of US immigration policies and future demographic consequences of climate change on these policies.
Wong, Hiu Wai. "Disability, Victorian Biopolitics and Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray." n.p.
Discusses The Picture of Dorian Gray as Oscar Wilde's life writing of androgynous beauty that overthrows gender roles of Victorian biopolitics, but fails to undermine able-bodied biopolitics.
Discusses The Picture of Dorian Gray as Oscar Wilde's life writing of androgynous beauty that overthrows gender roles of Victorian biopolitics, but fails to undermine able-bodied biopolitics.
Chang, Shu-li. "Age Troubles, Emotional Labor, and Roz Chast's Can't We Talk about Something More Pleasant?" n.p.
Examines Roz Chast's use of the medium of comics to give expression to the emotional labor involved in caregiving.
Examines Roz Chast's use of the medium of comics to give expression to the emotional labor involved in caregiving.
Wang, I-Chun. "Landscapes of Illness, Politics of Segregation and Discourse of Empathy in the 19th Century Leprosy Narratives of Hawaii." n.p.
Probes into the life writings of leprosy sufferers and discusses the landscapes of illness, politics of segregation, and discourses of empathy in late nineteenth-century cultural memories of Hawai'i.
Probes into the life writings of leprosy sufferers and discusses the landscapes of illness, politics of segregation, and discourses of empathy in late nineteenth-century cultural memories of Hawai'i.
Diegesis: Interdisziplinäres E-Journal für Erzählforschung, vol. 8, no. 1, 2019, special issue on "Wirklichkeit Erzählen im Comic," edited by Christian Klein, Matías Martínez, and Lynn L. Wolff.
Klein, Christian, Matías Martínez, and Lynn L. Wolff. "Einleitung: Wirklichkeit Erzählen im Comic." pp. 1–4.
Sketches the history of fictional comics and summarizes the essays in the special issue.
Sketches the history of fictional comics and summarizes the essays in the special issue.
Albiero, Olivia. "When Public Figures Become Comics: Reinhard Kleist's Graphic Biographies." pp. 6–23.
Uses Kai Mikkonen's theory of characters in comics to show how Kleist renders reallife figures as characters at the intersection of factual and fictional narration.
Uses Kai Mikkonen's theory of characters in comics to show how Kleist renders reallife figures as characters at the intersection of factual and fictional narration.
Ludewig, Julia. "The Art of Comic Reportage." pp. 24–47.
Offers a comparative and narratologically-informed close reading of four recent comic reportages from refugee camps around the world.
Offers a comparative and narratologically-informed close reading of four recent comic reportages from refugee camps around the world.
Pedri, Nancy. "Telling It Authentically: Documents in Graphic Illness Memoirs." pp. 48–66.
Argues that readers of graphic illness memoirs reach an impression of authenticity through the dynamic interplay between documentary evidence and subjective strategies that pressure the truth value of that documentary evidence.
Argues that readers of graphic illness memoirs reach an impression of authenticity through the dynamic interplay between documentary evidence and subjective strategies that pressure the truth value of that documentary evidence.
Polak, Kate. "Displacing the Memorial: Holocaust Comics in Conversation with Memory." pp. 67–84.
Considers how identification with characters, inference, and point of view are used to prompt reflection on the way history is packaged for consumption.
Considers how identification with characters, inference, and point of view are used to prompt reflection on the way history is packaged for consumption.
Vanoost, Marie, and Sarah Sepulchre. "Subjectivity and Comics Journalism in the French Magazine XXI: Discrepancy between Paratexts and Texts." pp. 85–108.
Analyzes a corpus from XXI to show how subjectivity is expressed in the comics journalism paratext and translated into the cartoon itself, both graphically and textually.
Analyzes a corpus from XXI to show how subjectivity is expressed in the comics journalism paratext and translated into the cartoon itself, both graphically and textually.
Krüger-Fürhoff, Irmela Marei. "Narrating the Lived Reality of Illness in Comics and Literature: Research by the PathoGraphics Team at Freie Universität Berlin." pp. 109–20.
Gives brief exemplary readings of excerpts from four English- and German-language comics to introduce the key questions of the PathoGraphics project.
Gives brief exemplary readings of excerpts from four English- and German-language comics to introduce the key questions of the PathoGraphics project.
Kleist, Reinhard, and Christian Klein. "'Eine 1:1-Abschilderung des Lebens finde ich nicht sehr reizvoll': Der Comic-Zeichner Reinhard Kleist im Interview." pp. 121–26.
Christian Klein interviews Reinhard Kleist on his interest in biographies and his approach to drawing graphic novels.
Christian Klein interviews Reinhard Kleist on his interest in biographies and his approach to drawing graphic novels.
Eckerle, Julie A., and Naomi McAreavey, editors. Women's Life Writing and Early Modern Ireland. U of Nebraska P, 2019.
Eckerle, Julie A., and Naomi McAreavey. "Introduction." pp. 1–21.
Situates the recovery and examination of early modern texts by Irish and English women who wrote about their lives in Ireland in relation to previous groundbreaking work.
Situates the recovery and examination of early modern texts by Irish and English women who wrote about their lives in Ireland in relation to previous groundbreaking work.
Anselment, Raymond A. "Alice Thornton, Elizabeth Freke, and the Remembrances of Ireland." pp. 23–49.
Analyzes Thornton's and Freke's retrospective narratives and the role of Ireland in the textual construction of a woman's self.
Analyzes Thornton's and Freke's retrospective narratives and the role of Ireland in the textual construction of a woman's self.
Fogarty, Anne. "Reading Dislocation and Emotion in the Writings of Alice Thornton, Ann Fanshawe, and Barbara Blaugdone." pp. 51–77.
Offers a comparative analysis of the colonial life from a female point of view by considering the unique historical moments Thornton, Fanshawe, and Blaugone experienced, as well as the emotional communities in which they were embedded.
Offers a comparative analysis of the colonial life from a female point of view by considering the unique historical moments Thornton, Fanshawe, and Blaugone experienced, as well as the emotional communities in which they were embedded.
Walsh, Ann-Marie. "The Boyle Women and Familial Life Writing." pp. 79–98.
Demonstrates, through reading their letters, that each Boyle woman defined her sense of self, at least in part, according to her perception of her place within the family.
Demonstrates, through reading their letters, that each Boyle woman defined her sense of self, at least in part, according to her perception of her place within the family.
Zurcher, Amelia. "Life Writing in the Boyle Family Network." pp. 99–135.
Highlights the complex relation between Protestant piety and other intellectual and social concerns in the letters of Ladies Rich and Ranelagh, Boyles by birth.
Highlights the complex relation between Protestant piety and other intellectual and social concerns in the letters of Ladies Rich and Ranelagh, Boyles by birth.
Connolly, Ruth. "The Politics of Honor in Lady Ranelagh's Ireland." pp. 137–58.
Considers Lady Ranelagh's ethnically inflected defense of her separation from her estranged husband, the New English Peer Arthur Jones, Viscount Ranelagh, thus identifying Ireland as a space in and against which identity is constructed.
Considers Lady Ranelagh's ethnically inflected defense of her separation from her estranged husband, the New English Peer Arthur Jones, Viscount Ranelagh, thus identifying Ireland as a space in and against which identity is constructed.
McAreavey, Naomi. "The Place of Ireland in the Letters of the First Duchess of Ormonde." pp. 159–81.
Focuses on Duchess Ormonde's epistolary account of her successful mobilization of an Irish lineage, inheritance, and identity to establish herself as head of the family in her husband's absence, as a result of his exile during the Interregnum.
Focuses on Duchess Ormonde's epistolary account of her successful mobilization of an Irish lineage, inheritance, and identity to establish herself as head of the family in her husband's absence, as a result of his exile during the Interregnum.
Herbert, Amanda E. "English-Irish Social Networks in the Seventeenth Century." pp. 183–96.
Explores how Eliza Blennerhassett constructed a cross-channel identity influenced by Ireland as a location and an idea that shaped her sense of self, memory, and place.
Explores how Eliza Blennerhassett constructed a cross-channel identity influenced by Ireland as a location and an idea that shaped her sense of self, memory, and place.
Eckerle, Julia. "Women's Letters in the Lyons Collection of the Correspondence of William King." pp. 197–227.
Demonstrates how many different women in the position of supplicant manipulated the epistolary genre to ask for assistance from a man of great power in Ireland.
Demonstrates how many different women in the position of supplicant manipulated the epistolary genre to ask for assistance from a man of great power in Ireland.
McElligott, Jason. "Ownership Inscriptions and Life Writing in the Books of Early Modern Women." pp. 229–51.
Yields rich conclusions about how the identities of relatively unknown figures can be constructed using the marginal notations that female book owners wrote.
Yields rich conclusions about how the identities of relatively unknown figures can be constructed using the marginal notations that female book owners wrote.
"Archive and Female Life Writers of Early Modern Ireland." pp. 253–80.
This appendix provides details for archives housed throughout the English-speaking world containing a wealth of source material to facilitate further recovery work.
This appendix provides details for archives housed throughout the English-speaking world containing a wealth of source material to facilitate further recovery work.
European Journal of Life Writing, vol. 8, 2019, cluster on "Digital Media: Life-Changing Online."
Brant, Clare, and Rob Gallagher. "Digital Media: Life-Changing Online Introduction." pp. DM1–DM11.
Introduces this cluster that furthers a discussion on the theme of "Life Writing, Europe and New Media" from the IABA Europe 2017 conference at King's College London.
Introduces this cluster that furthers a discussion on the theme of "Life Writing, Europe and New Media" from the IABA Europe 2017 conference at King's College London.
Maguire, Emma. "Constructing the 'Instagirl,' Deconstructing the Self-Brand: Amalia Ulman's Instagram Hoax." pp. DM12–DM32.
Investigates feminine embodiment and self-representation and the gendering of self-branding in digital media by analyzing Ulman's autobiographical mediation.
Investigates feminine embodiment and self-representation and the gendering of self-branding in digital media by analyzing Ulman's autobiographical mediation.
Gallagher, Rob. "'The game becomes the mediator of all your relationships': Life Narrative and Networked Intimacy in Nina Freeman's Cibele." pp. DM33–DM55.
Frames Cibele, an interactive autobiography of a young woman sharing her life online, as a counterpoint to dismissive narratives stressing the deficiency of networked intimacy and the dangers it poses to young women who seek intimacy on the internet.
Frames Cibele, an interactive autobiography of a young woman sharing her life online, as a counterpoint to dismissive narratives stressing the deficiency of networked intimacy and the dangers it poses to young women who seek intimacy on the internet.
McDowell, Felice. "Inside the Wardrobe: Fashioning a Fashionable Life." pp. DM56–DM74.
Demonstrates that the study of fashion offers a wider understanding of self-identity, life narrative, autobiographical acts, and autobiography in digital mediums and media.
Demonstrates that the study of fashion offers a wider understanding of self-identity, life narrative, autobiographical acts, and autobiography in digital mediums and media.
Miller, Alisa. "Blogging the Iraq War: Soldiers, Civilians and Institutions." pp. DM75–DM99.
Considers how blogs written about the 2003 Iraq War, civilian and military, inform public narratives about the war and complicate notions of "authentic" war writing.
Considers how blogs written about the 2003 Iraq War, civilian and military, inform public narratives about the war and complicate notions of "authentic" war writing.
Huang, Rong. "Real Money, Real Me: Life Told by Third-party Mobile Payment Platforms." pp. DM100–DM117.
Explains third-party mobile payment platforms, and discusses different monetary approaches to user identities and their implications, such as the possibility of a unified on/offline identity, the identification of online users, and privacy protection issues.
Explains third-party mobile payment platforms, and discusses different monetary approaches to user identities and their implications, such as the possibility of a unified on/offline identity, the identification of online users, and privacy protection issues.
Giaxoglou, Korina. "Sharing Small Stories of Life and Death Online: Death-writing of the Moment." pp. DM118–DM142.
Offers insight into the ways the tellability of death is extended in digital time-spaces and the implications for the visibility of death, dying, and mourning.
Offers insight into the ways the tellability of death is extended in digital time-spaces and the implications for the visibility of death, dying, and mourning.
Brant, Clare. "Imaginative Agency: New Possibilities." pp. DM142–DM170.
Argues for making a distinction between imaginative agency and creativity, due to the monetizing of much creative activity, and engages imaginative agency in philosophical and aesthetic debates about capability, performativity, ethics, and artificial intelligence.
Argues for making a distinction between imaginative agency and creativity, due to the monetizing of much creative activity, and engages imaginative agency in philosophical and aesthetic debates about capability, performativity, ethics, and artificial intelligence.
Hurley, Ursula. "Printing a New Story: Self-representation, Disability, and Digital Fabrication." pp. DM171–DM196.
Proposes that digital fabrication may be suited to inclusive auto/biographical expression, empowering disabled people to print new stories for and about themselves.
Proposes that digital fabrication may be suited to inclusive auto/biographical expression, empowering disabled people to print new stories for and about themselves.
European Journal of Life Writing, vol. 8, 2019, cluster on "Digital Media: Life-Changing Online. Creative Section."
Maguire, Emma. "Yumi Sakugawa's Instagram Account and Erika Lust's Erotic Films." pp. DM-CS1–CS4.
Looks at Yumi Sakugawa's experiments with digital self-help and Erika Lust's sex-positive feminist Xconfessions series as life narratives.
Looks at Yumi Sakugawa's experiments with digital self-help and Erika Lust's sex-positive feminist Xconfessions series as life narratives.
Gallagher, Rob. "What We Wore and Sketchfab." pp. DM-CS5–CS8.
Discusses What We Wore, a people's style history of Britain, and Sketchfab, a collaboratively developed database of 3D models and animation files.
Discusses What We Wore, a people's style history of Britain, and Sketchfab, a collaboratively developed database of 3D models and animation files.
McDowell, Felice. "Into the Gloss." pp. DM-CS9–DM-CS11.
Presents the ways digital fashion media participates in the fashioning of life.
Presents the ways digital fashion media participates in the fashioning of life.
Miller, Alisa. "Elena Ferrante in The Guardian and Roads and Kingdoms." pp. DM-CS12–DM-CS14.
Considers articles by Ferrante in The Guardian and those commissioned from writers around the world in Roads and Kingdoms, a travel website and online publication.
Considers articles by Ferrante in The Guardian and those commissioned from writers around the world in Roads and Kingdoms, a travel website and online publication.
Huang, Rong. "The Multilingual Full-Text Database of Overseas Life-Writing on Modern Chinese People and the China Biographical Database." pp. DM-CS15–DM-CS21.
Describes the creation, aim, focus, and content of two Chinese lifewriting databases.
Describes the creation, aim, focus, and content of two Chinese lifewriting databases.
Giaxoglou, Korina. "A Facebook R.I.P. Group and Charlotte Eades' Video Diary." pp. DM-CS22–DM-CS24.
Examines the public Facebook R.I.P. group for a young adult who died in a car crash and Charlotte Eades' video diary about living with a terminal illness.
Examines the public Facebook R.I.P. group for a young adult who died in a car crash and Charlotte Eades' video diary about living with a terminal illness.
Brant, Clare. "Spare Rib and Underwater Livecams." pp. DM-CS25–DM-CS29.
Shares two particular primary digital or digitized sources, one from the era of second-wave feminism and the other about life underwater.
Shares two particular primary digital or digitized sources, one from the era of second-wave feminism and the other about life underwater.
Hurley, Ursula. "Thingiverse: Archive and Enabler." pp. DM-CS30–DM-CS33.
Explores the effect Creative Commons licensing is having on Thingiverse, an opensource website, showcasing the capabilities of 3D printers.
Explores the effect Creative Commons licensing is having on Thingiverse, an opensource website, showcasing the capabilities of 3D printers.
McRae, Sarah. "'Under Construction' Lives: Restorative Nostalgia and the GeoCities Archive." pp. DM-CS34–DM-CS44.
Argues that the popularity of "Geocities-izer" presages the new decade's growing appetite for 1990s-era cultural artifacts and its digital aesthetics.
Argues that the popularity of "Geocities-izer" presages the new decade's growing appetite for 1990s-era cultural artifacts and its digital aesthetics.
Fox, Karen, editor. True Biographies of Nations?: The Cultural Journeys of Dictionaries of National Biography. ANU P, 2019.
Fox, Karen. "The Cultural Journeys of Dictionaries of Biography." pp. 1–18.
Outlines how the contributors wrestle with the imperial strand in the history of the nation as reflected in dictionaries of biography, and discusses issues of selection, representation, and technological change.
Outlines how the contributors wrestle with the imperial strand in the history of the nation as reflected in dictionaries of biography, and discusses issues of selection, representation, and technological change.
Phillips, Jock. "Individual Lives and National Truths: Locating Biographies within a National Encyclopedia." pp. 21–36.
Discusses why biographies in national biographical dictionaries will gain wider significance through linking with other online resources.
Discusses why biographies in national biographical dictionaries will gain wider significance through linking with other online resources.
O'Riordan, Turlough. "The Irish World: How to Revise a Long-Standing Dictionary Project." pp. 37–56.
Argues that past practices perfected in the era of hard-copy, analogue-only research and publication will guide the digital future for national biographical dictionaries.
Argues that past practices perfected in the era of hard-copy, analogue-only research and publication will guide the digital future for national biographical dictionaries.
Carter, Philip. "What is National Biography For? Dictionaries and Digital History." pp. 57–78.
Highlights the need to further recognize and promote national biographical dictionaries as platforms for presenting and enabling original research.
Highlights the need to further recognize and promote national biographical dictionaries as platforms for presenting and enabling original research.
Nolan, Melanie. "Using Lives: The Australian Dictionary of Biography and Its Related Corpora." pp. 79–98.
Discusses the extent to which digital tools have transformed the project of producing a national biographical dictionary, and concludes they will help meet old challenges.
Discusses the extent to which digital tools have transformed the project of producing a national biographical dictionary, and concludes they will help meet old challenges.
Ware, Susan. "Why Gender Matters: Fostering Diversity in the American National Biography with Lessons Learned from Notable American Women." pp. 101–18.
Asks whether improving the representations of women's lives in national biographical dictionaries will obviate the need for specialist dictionaries.
Asks whether improving the representations of women's lives in national biographical dictionaries will obviate the need for specialist dictionaries.
Ewan, Elizabeth. "Women and the Biographies of Nations: The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women." pp. 119–38.
Considers how biographical dictionaries of women raise questions about changing gender norms, and might influence approaches to the history of nations.
Considers how biographical dictionaries of women raise questions about changing gender norms, and might influence approaches to the history of nations.
Konishi, Shino. "An Indigenous Australian Dictionary of Biography." pp. 139–58.
Raises questions about how a specialist dictionary of Indigenous Australian biography might depart from the conventions of national biography as practiced in the past, and what implications such departures might have for the genre as a whole.
Raises questions about how a specialist dictionary of Indigenous Australian biography might depart from the conventions of national biography as practiced in the past, and what implications such departures might have for the genre as a whole.
Johnston, Dafydd. "Writing the Nation in Two Languages: The Dictionary of Welsh Biography." pp. 159–76.
Explores language as a central aspect of Welsh identity, and thus of national identity, and shows how important language, and choices around it, prove for the task of writing a true national biography.
Explores language as a central aspect of Welsh identity, and thus of national identity, and shows how important language, and choices around it, prove for the task of writing a true national biography.
Jones, Barry. "Writing a Dictionary of World Biography." pp. 179–92.
Considers some of the challenges involved in producing the Dictionary of World Biography, which differ from writing a national biographical dictionary.
Considers some of the challenges involved in producing the Dictionary of World Biography, which differ from writing a national biographical dictionary.
Cannadine, David. "British National Biography and Global British Lives: From the DNB to the ODNB—and Beyond?" pp. 193–208.
Shows how national and global biographical dictionary projects showcase global or transnational lives alongside those more firmly located in place, whether local, regional, or national.
Shows how national and global biographical dictionary projects showcase global or transnational lives alongside those more firmly located in place, whether local, regional, or national.
Wilson, David A. "The Dictionary of Canadian Biography and the Irish Diaspora." pp. 209–224.
Demonstrates how national biographical dictionaries reveal and obscure transnational links, and recommends further attention to these links.
Demonstrates how national biographical dictionaries reveal and obscure transnational links, and recommends further attention to these links.
Herzog, Christoph, and Richard Wittmann, editors. Istanbul - Kushta - Constantinople: Narratives of Identity in the Ottoman Capital, 1830–1930. Life Narratives of the Ottoman Realm: Individual and Empire in the Near East, Routledge, 2019.
Herzog, Christoph, and Richard Wittmann. "Introduction." pp. 1–6.
Explains how the collection makes the personal writings of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim men and women available to help reconstruct late Ottoman realities in the multiethnic capital of Istanbul.
Explains how the collection makes the personal writings of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim men and women available to help reconstruct late Ottoman realities in the multiethnic capital of Istanbul.
Wedel, Gudrun. "The Memories of German-speaking Women of Constantinople." pp. 9–29.
Provides a biographical and social recontextualization of the travelogues fourteen German-speaking women published about their experiences in Constantinople.
Provides a biographical and social recontextualization of the travelogues fourteen German-speaking women published about their experiences in Constantinople.
Fuhrmann, Malte. "Wanderlust, Follies, and Self-Inflicted Misfortunes: The Memoirs of Anna Forneris and her Thirty Years in Constantinople and the Levant." pp. 30–43.
Assesses Anna Forneris's critical first-hand account of living conditions in the mid-nineteenth-century Middle East, through gendered perspectives and the use of literary genres, to productively engage her narrative as a source for historians.
Assesses Anna Forneris's critical first-hand account of living conditions in the mid-nineteenth-century Middle East, through gendered perspectives and the use of literary genres, to productively engage her narrative as a source for historians.
Sagaster, Börte. "The Imperial Harem Network in Istanbul, 1850s to 1922." pp. 44–54.
Compares six memoirs by Istanbul harem women based on their common understanding of the harem as a social system with fixed rules and a very sophisticated hierarchy.
Compares six memoirs by Istanbul harem women based on their common understanding of the harem as a social system with fixed rules and a very sophisticated hierarchy.
Schull, Kent. "Amalgamated Observations: Assessing American Impressions of Nineteenth-Century Constantinople and its Peoples." pp. 57–77.
Draws on personal accounts of American Protestant missionaries who lived in Istanbul in the nineteenth century, and pleads for the inclusion of agency in discourse analysis.
Draws on personal accounts of American Protestant missionaries who lived in Istanbul in the nineteenth century, and pleads for the inclusion of agency in discourse analysis.
Sharif, Malek. "Istanbul and the Formation of an Arab Teenager's Identity: Recollections of a Cadet in the Ottoman Army in 1914 and 1916–17." pp. 78–90.
Previously unpublished autobiography of 'Abd Allāh Dabbūs, an Arab Ottoman officer, which offers a detailed pro-Ottoman portrayal of life in wartime Istanbul.
Previously unpublished autobiography of 'Abd Allāh Dabbūs, an Arab Ottoman officer, which offers a detailed pro-Ottoman portrayal of life in wartime Istanbul.
Martín Asuero, Pablo. "Hispanic Observers of Istanbul." pp. 91–101.
Analyzes the accounts of Spanish and Latin American travelers to Istanbul to afford an important corrective and addition to the predominantly one-sided focus on the European great powers in the history of Ottoman contacts with the outside world.
Analyzes the accounts of Spanish and Latin American travelers to Istanbul to afford an important corrective and addition to the predominantly one-sided focus on the European great powers in the history of Ottoman contacts with the outside world.
Bunis, David M. "The Autobiographical Writings of the Constantinople Judezmo Journalist David Fresco as a Clue toward His Attitude to Language." pp. 105–98.
Explores the dilemma of language as an identity marker, and the controversy of Ladino, or Judezmo, as a literary language among Istanbul's Jewish community by analyzing David Fresco's shifting attitudes towards the language throughout his career.
Explores the dilemma of language as an identity marker, and the controversy of Ladino, or Judezmo, as a literary language among Istanbul's Jewish community by analyzing David Fresco's shifting attitudes towards the language throughout his career.
Ben-Naeh, Yaron. "Istanbul's Jewish Community through the Eyes of a European Jew: Ludwig A. Frankl in his Nach Jerusalem." pp. 199–209.
Examines Frankl's report on his journey to Jerusalem via Istanbul as a source for little-known information on key historical dates for Istanbul's Jewish community.
Examines Frankl's report on his journey to Jerusalem via Istanbul as a source for little-known information on key historical dates for Istanbul's Jewish community.
Goshgarian, Rachel. "A Stroll through the Quarters of Constantinople: Sketches of the City as Seen through the Eyes of the Great Satirist Hagop Baronian." pp. 213–30.
Focuses on Baronian's witty sketches that portray mulitfaceted expressions of Armenian culture and offer unmatched insights into everyday life in the Ottoman capital.
Focuses on Baronian's witty sketches that portray mulitfaceted expressions of Armenian culture and offer unmatched insights into everyday life in the Ottoman capital.
Koçunyan, Aylin. "From Short Stories to Social Topography: Misak Koçunyan's Life Landscapes." pp. 231–38.
Discusses how Misak Koçunyan, a renowned educator, author, and publisher, viewed the amalgamation of diversities in Istanbul as a challenge to Armenians' sense of self.
Discusses how Misak Koçunyan, a renowned educator, author, and publisher, viewed the amalgamation of diversities in Istanbul as a challenge to Armenians' sense of self.
Stephanov, Darin. "'Bulgar Milleti Nedir?' Syncretic Forms of Belonging in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Istanbul." pp. 239–245.
Based on an analysis of key self-referential texts, attempts to reconstruct the awareness of a distinct identity for Bulgarians who lived in mid-nineteenth century Istanbul.
Based on an analysis of key self-referential texts, attempts to reconstruct the awareness of a distinct identity for Bulgarians who lived in mid-nineteenth century Istanbul.
Strauss, Johann. "Twenty Years in the Ottoman Capital: The Memoirs of Doctor Hristo Tanev Stambolski of Kazanlik (1843–1932) from an Ottoman Point of View." pp. 246–302.
Offers a new reading of Stambolski's autobiography from the perspective of Ottoman historiography, and as a prosopography on well-known Ottomans of the time.
Offers a new reading of Stambolski's autobiography from the perspective of Ottoman historiography, and as a prosopography on well-known Ottomans of the time.
Historical Social Research, supplement 32, 2019, special issue on "Celebrity's Histories: Case Studies & Critical Perspectives," edited by Robert van Krieken and Nicola Vinovrški.
Vinovrški, Nicola, and Robert van Krieken. "New Directions in the History of Celebrity: Case Studies and Critical Perspectives." pp. 7–16.
Provides an overview of particularly significant and innovative contributions and draws out their implications for the ever-expanding scope of the history of celebrity.
Provides an overview of particularly significant and innovative contributions and draws out their implications for the ever-expanding scope of the history of celebrity.
Lilti, Antoine, and Alice Le Goff. "On Figures Publiques: L'Invention de la Célébrité (1750–1850): Mechanisms of Celebrity and Social Esteem." pp. 19–38.
Interview with Antoine Lilti in which he presents his work on the "invention of celebrity" and discusses its contribution to the study of the logic of social esteem.
Interview with Antoine Lilti in which he presents his work on the "invention of celebrity" and discusses its contribution to the study of the logic of social esteem.
Rojek, Chris. "The Two Bodies of Achieved Celebrity." pp. 39–57.
Uses Carl Schmitt and Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz's political thought to argue that the idea of the king's two bodies survives in a translated form with certain celebrities.
Uses Carl Schmitt and Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz's political thought to argue that the idea of the king's two bodies survives in a translated form with certain celebrities.
Holl, Jennifer. "'The wonder of his time': Richard Tarlton and the Dynamics of Early Modern Theatrical Celebrity." pp. 58–82.
Offers an historical inquiry into the dynamics of theatrical celebrity in early modern London through a case study of the early stage clown Richard Tarlton.
Offers an historical inquiry into the dynamics of theatrical celebrity in early modern London through a case study of the early stage clown Richard Tarlton.
Cowan, Brian. "Histories of Celebrity in Post-Revolutionary England." pp. 83–98.
Argues there is a political history of celebrity with origins in traditional forms of charisma and public devotion to famous figures that emerged in the long eighteenth century.
Argues there is a political history of celebrity with origins in traditional forms of charisma and public devotion to famous figures that emerged in the long eighteenth century.
Vinovrški, Nicola. "Casanova: A Case Study of Celebrity in 18th Century Europe." pp. 99–120.
Explores the case of Casanova to suggest the need to further investigate historical celebrity and plot its origins in the Romantic era and the mid-eighteenth century.
Explores the case of Casanova to suggest the need to further investigate historical celebrity and plot its origins in the Romantic era and the mid-eighteenth century.
Worrall, David. "Edmund Kean's Celebrity: Assemblage Theory and the Unintended Consequences of Audience Density." pp. 121–38.
Charts the financial aspects of celebrity with reference to the theatrical celebrity of the actor Edmund Kean in his first season at Drury Lane, 1813–14, to argue that celebrity is a category conferred by audience density.
Charts the financial aspects of celebrity with reference to the theatrical celebrity of the actor Edmund Kean in his first season at Drury Lane, 1813–14, to argue that celebrity is a category conferred by audience density.
Kahan, Jeffrey. "Bettymania and the Death of Celebrity Culture." pp. 139–64.
Argues that a working definition of celebrity culture and the rules affixed to it ceased to be relevant the moment Donald Trump became President of the United States.
Argues that a working definition of celebrity culture and the rules affixed to it ceased to be relevant the moment Donald Trump became President of the United States.
Morgan, Simon. "Heroes in the Age of Celebrity: Lafayette, Kossuth, and John Bright in 19th-Century America." pp. 165–85.
Explores the relationship between the hero and nineteenth-century United States celebrity culture and contends that valid distinctions between the hero and the celebrity remain.
Explores the relationship between the hero and nineteenth-century United States celebrity culture and contends that valid distinctions between the hero and the celebrity remain.
Washbourne, Neil. "W. G. Grace: Sporting Superstar, Cultural Celebrity, and Hero (to Oscar Wilde's Villain) of the Great Public Drama of 1895." pp. 186–208.
Analyzes the social and cultural organization of fame and Grace's superstardom and celebrity, allied to a resurgence in his cricket form, to demonstrate how he became the masculine robust hero of 1895 as opposed to Oscar Wilde's scandalous villain.
Analyzes the social and cultural organization of fame and Grace's superstardom and celebrity, allied to a resurgence in his cricket form, to demonstrate how he became the masculine robust hero of 1895 as opposed to Oscar Wilde's scandalous villain.
Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, vol. 33, no. 4, 2018, cluster on "Gender and the 'Great Man': Recovering Philosophy's 'Wives of the Canon,'" edited by Jennifer Forestal and Menaka Philips.
Forestal, Jennifer, and Menaka Philips. "Introduction: Gender and the 'Great Man': Recovering Philosophy's 'Wives of the Canon.'" pp. 587–92.
Focuses on intellectual labor, the boundaries of scholarly focus, and the unseen and unpaid role of wives and partners in the academy in this cluster.
Focuses on intellectual labor, the boundaries of scholarly focus, and the unseen and unpaid role of wives and partners in the academy in this cluster.
Carver, Terrell. "'Mere Auxiliaries to the Movement': How Intellectual Biography Obscures Marx's and Engels's Gendered Political Partnerships." pp. 593–609.
Rethinks gendered political partnerships by considering the wives and mistresses of Marx and Engels and offers a view of Marx and Engels as communist/socialist activists working in and through everyday spaces and material practices.
Rethinks gendered political partnerships by considering the wives and mistresses of Marx and Engels and offers a view of Marx and Engels as communist/socialist activists working in and through everyday spaces and material practices.
Saxonhouse, Arlene. "Xanthippe: Shrew or Muse." pp. 610–25.
Considers the significance of Xanthippe's presence as the wife of Socrates early in the Phaedo for understanding the conversation between Socrates and his companions.
Considers the significance of Xanthippe's presence as the wife of Socrates early in the Phaedo for understanding the conversation between Socrates and his companions.
Philips, Menaka. "The 'Beloved and Deplored' Memory of Harriet Taylor Mill: Rethinking Gender and Intellectual Labor in the Canon." pp. 636–42.
Examines Taylor Mill's writings to challenge the gendering practices that have sustained scholarly interrogations of her and of her relationship to John Stuart Mill.
Examines Taylor Mill's writings to challenge the gendering practices that have sustained scholarly interrogations of her and of her relationship to John Stuart Mill.
Carroll, Ross. "The Hidden Labors of Mary Mottley, Madame de Tocqueville." pp. 643–62.
Argues that Mottley refused to confine herself to the domestic-management and emotional-support roles typical of a Tocquevillian citizen-wife.
Argues that Mottley refused to confine herself to the domestic-management and emotional-support roles typical of a Tocquevillian citizen-wife.
International Journal for History, Culture, and Modernity, vol. 6, no. 1, 2019, special collection on "Life Writing and European Identities."
Saunders, Max. "Byatt, 'Fiction and Biofiction.'" n.p.
Explores the relation between fiction, biography, and autobiography in A. S. Byatt's work, taking in such topics as portraiture, myth, creation, and reading.
Explores the relation between fiction, biography, and autobiography in A. S. Byatt's work, taking in such topics as portraiture, myth, creation, and reading.
Poletti, Anna. "The Selfie on Europe's Shores: Ai Weiwei and the Selfie as a Means of Safe Passage." pp. 1–13.
Considers how Byatt's suggestion about the role of the critic writing about living authors can be adapted for scholarship and criticism that seeks to respond to new forms of life writing that have emerged in the digital age.
Considers how Byatt's suggestion about the role of the critic writing about living authors can be adapted for scholarship and criticism that seeks to respond to new forms of life writing that have emerged in the digital age.
Heynders, Odile. "The Everyday Life of a European Man: Knausgård's Literary Project as Social Imagination." pp. 134–140.
Argues that Karl Ove Knausgaard's ambitious as well as paradoxical literary project sheds light on the social and cultural position of the late modern subject in a European middle class.
Argues that Karl Ove Knausgaard's ambitious as well as paradoxical literary project sheds light on the social and cultural position of the late modern subject in a European middle class.
International Journal of Military History, vol. 39, no. 2, 2019, special issue on "Women and the Second World War," edited by Sandra Trudgen Dawson.
Dawson, Sandra Trudgen. "Women and the Second World War." pp. 171–180.
Outlines how the articles illustrate the hidden roles and choices women made during the conflict despite additional hurdles created by racism, and gender expectations.
Outlines how the articles illustrate the hidden roles and choices women made during the conflict despite additional hurdles created by racism, and gender expectations.
Hubbard-Hall, Claire, and Adrian O'Sullivan. "Wives of Secret Agents: Spyscapes of the Second World War and Female Agency." pp. 181–207.
Assembles and analyzes a diverse range of gender relationships at the intersection of manifest and secret worlds in the case studies of the wives of intelligence operatives.
Assembles and analyzes a diverse range of gender relationships at the intersection of manifest and secret worlds in the case studies of the wives of intelligence operatives.
Bolzenius, Sandra. "Asserting Citizenship: Black Women in the Women's Army Corps (WAC)." pp. 208–231.
Investigates the multiple subordinate positions to which the United States Army confined black Wacs and the army's gender and racial policies, and forefronts the actions of black Wacs who challenged their subordination to lay claim to their full rights.
Investigates the multiple subordinate positions to which the United States Army confined black Wacs and the army's gender and racial policies, and forefronts the actions of black Wacs who challenged their subordination to lay claim to their full rights.
Richardson, Ravenel. "'My professional future could be lost in a minute': Re-examining the Gender Dynamics of US Army Nursing during the Second World War." pp. 232–262.
Revises our understanding of Second World War nursing through a critical feminist analysis of the letters of two American women who embarked on romantic relationships that resulted in pregnancy and their subsequent discharge from the US Army.
Revises our understanding of Second World War nursing through a critical feminist analysis of the letters of two American women who embarked on romantic relationships that resulted in pregnancy and their subsequent discharge from the US Army.
Marcinkiewicz-Kaczmarczyk, Anna. "From Buzuluk to London: The Combat Trail and Everyday Service of Women Auxiliaries in the Polish Army (1941–1945)." pp. 263–287.
Examines the recruitment, organization, and daily life of the women who served their country while in exile on the battlefront of WWII in the Polish Women's Auxiliary Service (WAS) as part of the complex story of the Polish army's formation.
Examines the recruitment, organization, and daily life of the women who served their country while in exile on the battlefront of WWII in the Polish Women's Auxiliary Service (WAS) as part of the complex story of the Polish army's formation.
Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, vol. 12, 2019, special section on "The Study of Shen Congwen's Life Writing."
Liang, Qingbiao. "The Affectionate Paintings: On Shen Congwen's Letters in His Later Years." pp. 15–26.
Analyzes the expression of readiness, tranquility, and thoughts in Shen's letters after 1949 to produce a role model for aesthetic research on autobiography.
Analyzes the expression of readiness, tranquility, and thoughts in Shen's letters after 1949 to produce a role model for aesthetic research on autobiography.
Ding, Qianhan. "Living beyond the Suffering by Constructing the Self: The Selection in the Writing of Congwen's Autobiography." pp. 27–40.
Identifies Shen's selection of his adolescent images and his experiences in the first edition of his autobiography through a comparison with the works before and after it.
Identifies Shen's selection of his adolescent images and his experiences in the first edition of his autobiography through a comparison with the works before and after it.
Lackey, Michael, editor. Conversations with Biographical Novelists: Truthful Fictions Across the Globe. Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.
Clarifies how the biographical novel encourages cross-cultural dialogue, promotes new ways of thinking about history, politics, and social justice, and allows us to journey into the interior world of influential and remarkable people in this collection of interviews with Kevin Barry, Laurent Binet, Javier Cercas, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Emma Donoghue, David Ebershoff, Hannah Kent, David Lodge, Colum McCann, Anchee Min, Rosa Montero, Stephanus Muller, Sabina Murray, Nuala O'Connor, Susan Sellers, Colm Tóibín, Olga Tokarczuk, and Chika Unigwe.
Clarifies how the biographical novel encourages cross-cultural dialogue, promotes new ways of thinking about history, politics, and social justice, and allows us to journey into the interior world of influential and remarkable people in this collection of interviews with Kevin Barry, Laurent Binet, Javier Cercas, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Emma Donoghue, David Ebershoff, Hannah Kent, David Lodge, Colum McCann, Anchee Min, Rosa Montero, Stephanus Muller, Sabina Murray, Nuala O'Connor, Susan Sellers, Colm Tóibín, Olga Tokarczuk, and Chika Unigwe.
LeMahieu, D. L., and Christopher Cowley, editors. Philosophy and Life Writing. Routledge, 2019.
Interrogates the writings of Teresa of Avila, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Stuart Mill, Wilhelm Dilthey, Walter Benjamin, Albert Camus, Bryan Magee, Mikhail Bakhtin, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Judith Butler. (Originally published as a special issue of Life Writing, vol. 15, no. 3, 2018. See Biography, vol. 42, no. 1, 2018, pp. 228–29 for full annotation.)
Interrogates the writings of Teresa of Avila, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Stuart Mill, Wilhelm Dilthey, Walter Benjamin, Albert Camus, Bryan Magee, Mikhail Bakhtin, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Judith Butler. (Originally published as a special issue of Life Writing, vol. 15, no. 3, 2018. See Biography, vol. 42, no. 1, 2018, pp. 228–29 for full annotation.)
Letort, Delphine, and Benaouda Lebdai, editors. Women Activists and Civil Rights Leaders in Auto/Biographical Literature and Film. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
Letort, Delphine, and Benaouda Lebdai. "Introduction." pp. 1–9.
Shifts attention from the great men of history and places it on those who have transformed their personal lives into a fight for collective goals, arguing that life writing is a key source of artistic creativity and activism, which enables a fresh look at history.
Shifts attention from the great men of history and places it on those who have transformed their personal lives into a fight for collective goals, arguing that life writing is a key source of artistic creativity and activism, which enables a fresh look at history.
Lebdai, Benaouda. "Winnie Madikizela Mandela: The Construction of a South African Political Icon." pp. 13–32.
Retraces the construction of Winnie Mandela's image as a political icon, using her autobiographical writing to shed light on the events that prompted her to take political action.
Retraces the construction of Winnie Mandela's image as a political icon, using her autobiographical writing to shed light on the events that prompted her to take political action.
Jondot, Jacqueline. "'Revoluting' or Writing? Ahdaf Soueif and the 2011 Egyptian Revolution." pp. 33–43.
Reads Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif's Cairo, My City, Our Revolution (2012) as an activist's autobiographical attempt to consciously address the impact of a collective historical moment (the Arab Spring) on her personal and family stories.
Reads Egyptian writer Ahdaf Soueif's Cairo, My City, Our Revolution (2012) as an activist's autobiographical attempt to consciously address the impact of a collective historical moment (the Arab Spring) on her personal and family stories.
Jabour, Anya. "Autobiography of an Activist: Sophonisba Breckinridge, 'Champion of the Championless.'" pp. 45–63.
Offers insights from the unfinished autobiography of Sophonisba Breckinridge, an influential American reformer nearly forgotten today, into how she thought about herself and wanted to be known.
Offers insights from the unfinished autobiography of Sophonisba Breckinridge, an influential American reformer nearly forgotten today, into how she thought about herself and wanted to be known.
Kennedy, Tanya Ann. "Lean In and Tell Me a (True) Story: Sheryl Sandberg's Revision of Feminist History." pp. 65–88.
Contrasts Lilly Ledbetter's memoir with Sandberg's to critique Sandberg's distortions of the history of feminism by characterizing it as an individual project, downplaying the impact of structural barriers.
Contrasts Lilly Ledbetter's memoir with Sandberg's to critique Sandberg's distortions of the history of feminism by characterizing it as an individual project, downplaying the impact of structural barriers.
Letort, Delphine. "The Many Lives of Ida B. Wells: Autobiography, Historical Biography, and Documentary." pp. 91–107.
Compares biographies and a television documentary about Ida B. Wells with her autobiographical writing to highlight how the historical context of gender prejudice particularly impacted her life and career.
Compares biographies and a television documentary about Ida B. Wells with her autobiographical writing to highlight how the historical context of gender prejudice particularly impacted her life and career.
Dubois, Dominique. "Malcolm X: From the Autobiography to Spike Lee's Film, Two Complementary Perspectives on the Man and the Militant Black Leader." pp. 109–22.
Shows how Spike Lee maintained his artistic vision, despite many challenges, to capture the essence of a very complex individual, while displaying the political heritage of a black leader.
Shows how Spike Lee maintained his artistic vision, despite many challenges, to capture the essence of a very complex individual, while displaying the political heritage of a black leader.
Loizeau, Pierre-Marie. "Michelle Obama: The Voice and Embodiment of (African) American History." pp. 123–38.
Assesses the impact of Michelle Obama's success as First Lady, and analyzes how two biographies portray her as the embodiment of African American achievement.
Assesses the impact of Michelle Obama's success as First Lady, and analyzes how two biographies portray her as the embodiment of African American achievement.
Charron, Sylvie. "Ghost Writing and Filming Biography in Twelve/12 Years a Slave." pp. 139–50.
Identifies the interventions that David Wilson, who was the amanuensis for Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a Slave, made in the narrative, and indicates another interpretative layer in Steve McQueen's filmic adaptation.
Identifies the interventions that David Wilson, who was the amanuensis for Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a Slave, made in the narrative, and indicates another interpretative layer in Steve McQueen's filmic adaptation.
Tuhkunen, Taïna. "Biographical Motion Pictures and the Resuscitation of 'Real Lives.'" pp. 153–70.
Traces the evolution of films from "Jesus movies" to Lincoln that contribute to the mythification of historical figures by connecting their life stories with collective grand narratives.
Traces the evolution of films from "Jesus movies" to Lincoln that contribute to the mythification of historical figures by connecting their life stories with collective grand narratives.
Botshon, Lisa, and Melinda Plastas. "'Negro Girl (meager)': Black Women's In/Visibility in Contemporary Films About Slavery." pp. 171–88.
Spotlights the gendered treatment of black women in 12 Years a Slave and the British period drama Belle directed by Amma Asante, and argues that, while black women's suffering propels Solomon Northrup's narrative of escape, Belle complexifies the representation of slavery.
Spotlights the gendered treatment of black women in 12 Years a Slave and the British period drama Belle directed by Amma Asante, and argues that, while black women's suffering propels Solomon Northrup's narrative of escape, Belle complexifies the representation of slavery.
Peteghem-Tréard, Isabelle. "Queering the Biopic? Milk (2008) and the Biographic Real." pp. 189–205.
Engages with Gus Van Sant's aesthetic choices in his biopic of Harvey Milk, diagraming his efforts to appropriate the history of a murdered politician and tackle the political issue of homophobia.
Engages with Gus Van Sant's aesthetic choices in his biopic of Harvey Milk, diagraming his efforts to appropriate the history of a murdered politician and tackle the political issue of homophobia.
Cloarec, Nicole. "In Search of Purcell's Legacy: Tony Palmer's England, My England (1995)." pp. 207–20.
Examines a biopic that retraces the life of English composer Henry Purcell, and emphasizes the director's aesthetic creativity, which seems to be directly inspired from Purcell's musical style.
Examines a biopic that retraces the life of English composer Henry Purcell, and emphasizes the director's aesthetic creativity, which seems to be directly inspired from Purcell's musical style.
Prince, Nathalie. "Does One Need to Be a Man to Be a Great Man?" pp. 223–36.
Questions the suggestion that history might be seen as a woman to be subdued and dominated for a man to achieve greatness, problematizing Machiavelli's feminization of history.
Questions the suggestion that history might be seen as a woman to be subdued and dominated for a man to achieve greatness, problematizing Machiavelli's feminization of history.
Life Writing, vol. 16, no. 1, 2019, a special issue on "Women and Ageing: Private Meanings, Social Lives."
O'Neill, Margaret, and Michaela Schrage-Früh. "Women and Ageing: Private Meanings, Social Lives." pp. 1–8.
Acknowledges, explores, and contextualizes women's experiences of getting older.
Acknowledges, explores, and contextualizes women's experiences of getting older.
Hind, Emily. "Contemplation as Resistance to Ageism, and its Historical Context: Mexican Writers Carmen Boullosa, Guadalupe Nettel, and María Rivera." pp. 11–24.
Advocates for overcoming ageism by exiting the narrative arc of autopathology in favor of meditation.
Advocates for overcoming ageism by exiting the narrative arc of autopathology in favor of meditation.
Stončikaitė, Ieva. "Ageing, Creativity, and Memory: The Evolution of Erica Jong's Literary Career." pp. 25–36.
Considers the intersections of creativity, memory, and ageing in Jong's middle and later works, and explores underlying changes in the author's self-perception as a writer.
Considers the intersections of creativity, memory, and ageing in Jong's middle and later works, and explores underlying changes in the author's self-perception as a writer.
Rasmussen, Lucinda. "From Girl to Grotesque: Exploring the Intersection of Ageing, Illness, and Agency in Auto/biographical Narratives About Seventies Icon Farrah Fawcett." pp. 37–50.
Argues that Farrah's Story depicts Fawcett's personal growth as she questions what constitutes social accountability for media culture's negative treatment of women.
Argues that Farrah's Story depicts Fawcett's personal growth as she questions what constitutes social accountability for media culture's negative treatment of women.
Hannan, Leonie, Gemma Carney, Paula Devine, and Gemma Hodge. "'A View from Old Age': Women's Lives as Narrated Through Objects." pp. 51–67.
Concludes that objects offer a useful, tangible means of articulating and communicating the complexity of women's longevity.
Concludes that objects offer a useful, tangible means of articulating and communicating the complexity of women's longevity.
Ferris-Taylor, Rita, Jane Grant, Hannah Grist, Ros Jennings, Rina Rosselson, and Sylvia Wiseman. "Reading Film with Age Through Collaborative Autoethnography: Old Age and Care, Encounters with Amour (Haneke, 2012), Chronic (Franco, 2015) and A Woman's Tale (Cox, 1991)." pp. 69–95.
Employs autoethnographic reflection and introduces "reading with care" and "reading with age" to expand our understandings of what it means to care and be cared for.
Employs autoethnographic reflection and introduces "reading with care" and "reading with age" to expand our understandings of what it means to care and be cared for.
Webster-Wright, Ann. "Grace and Grit: The Politics, Poetics and Performance of Ageing as a Woman." pp. 97–111.
Emphasizes the poetics and potential of ageing in a cultural gerontology framework.
Emphasizes the poetics and potential of ageing in a cultural gerontology framework.
Fowley, Cathy. "Writing Life and Death Online: 'I'm Not Sure How Many More Days I'll Have on the Computer.'" pp. 115–26.
Explores death and mourning online and offline, and celebrates mentors in ageing.
Explores death and mourning online and offline, and celebrates mentors in ageing.
Hanscombe, Elisabeth. "Now that I'm Old: Life Writing, Women and Ageing." pp. 127–38.
Considers how the elision of certain memories from her mother's autobiographical writing impacted her ability to write her own life.
Considers how the elision of certain memories from her mother's autobiographical writing impacted her ability to write her own life.
Life Writing, vol. 16, no. 2, 2019, special issue on "Life Writing and Celebrity: Exploring Intersections."
Mayer, Sandra, and Julia Novak. "Life Writing and Celebrity: Exploring Intersections." pp. 149–55.
Points towards the insights to be gained from initiating a more rigorous theoretical and methodological dialogue between lifewriting scholarship and celebrity studies.
Points towards the insights to be gained from initiating a more rigorous theoretical and methodological dialogue between lifewriting scholarship and celebrity studies.
Frühwirth, Timo. "An Austrian Auden: A Media Construction Story." pp. 159–75.
Considers how W. H. Auden materialized, between foreign fame and local unknownness, as a celebrity in Austrian television.
Considers how W. H. Auden materialized, between foreign fame and local unknownness, as a celebrity in Austrian television.
Chinita, Fátima. "Sergei Eisenstein as Seen by Peter Greenaway: A Dialectic Representation of an (Anti)Great Film Director." pp. 177–93.
Argues Greenaway, the director of Eisenstein in Guanajuato, doubles his subject's "voice" with his own and "writes" himself through Sergei Eisenstein's theory and practice.
Argues Greenaway, the director of Eisenstein in Guanajuato, doubles his subject's "voice" with his own and "writes" himself through Sergei Eisenstein's theory and practice.
Kay, Rosemary. "Fictionalisation in Biography: Creating the Dickens Myth." pp. 195–212.
Examines three contributions to the cultural memorialization of Dickens.
Examines three contributions to the cultural memorialization of Dickens.
Rubery, Annette. "Visual Art as Celebrity Memoir: The Paradox of Peg Woffington's Sick-bed Portrait." pp. 213–30.
Defines portraiture as life writing that actresses used to shape their images for public consumption, and examines the unusual portrait, Peg Woffington in Bed (circa 1758).
Defines portraiture as life writing that actresses used to shape their images for public consumption, and examines the unusual portrait, Peg Woffington in Bed (circa 1758).
Gordon, Eva Sage. "Writing Celebrity as Disability: Las Meninas, Performing Dwarfs, and Michael Jackson Fan Day." pp. 231–44.
Illuminates the mechanisms by which celebrities are distorted by the process of public consumption and the consequences of this distortion on the wider culture.
Illuminates the mechanisms by which celebrities are distorted by the process of public consumption and the consequences of this distortion on the wider culture.
Lee, Katja. "'Boswellized From Mere Persons to Personages': Arthur Stringer, Mary Pickford, and the Trouble with Celebrity Profile(r)s." pp. 245–69.
Uses the 1918 profile of Mary Pickford in Maclean's magazine to explore the emergence of the celebrity profile as a particular genre of representation and one author's conflicted concessions to its generic conventions.
Uses the 1918 profile of Mary Pickford in Maclean's magazine to explore the emergence of the celebrity profile as a particular genre of representation and one author's conflicted concessions to its generic conventions.
Eaton, Oline. "'Watergate-ing' Norman Mailer's Marilyn: Life Writing in Cultural Context." pp. 261–77.
Places Marilyn at the intersections of biography, New Journalism, and Watergate discourses to illuminate how the project's destabilization of truth aligned with New Journalist pursuits, while clashing with Watergate era longings for stability.
Places Marilyn at the intersections of biography, New Journalism, and Watergate discourses to illuminate how the project's destabilization of truth aligned with New Journalist pursuits, while clashing with Watergate era longings for stability.
O'Dair, Marcus. "Pacts, Paratext, and Polyphony: Writing the Authorised Biography of Robert Wyatt." pp. 279–94.
Reflects on the experience of writing British musician Robert Wyatt's authorized biography, distinguishing between authorized and ghostwritten autobiographies in terms of the paratext and the autobiographical pact as well as the musical notion of polyphony.
Reflects on the experience of writing British musician Robert Wyatt's authorized biography, distinguishing between authorized and ghostwritten autobiographies in terms of the paratext and the autobiographical pact as well as the musical notion of polyphony.
Life Writing, vol. 16, no. 4, 2019, special issue on "History and Autobiography: The Logics of a Convergence."
Aurell, Jaume, and Rocío G. Davis. "History and Autobiography: The Logics of a Convergence." pp. 503–11.
Introduces this special issue and outlines some theoretical debates emerging from the intersection of history with different forms of self-representation.
Introduces this special issue and outlines some theoretical debates emerging from the intersection of history with different forms of self-representation.
Baines, Gary. "Confessions of a Conscript, Disclosures of an Historian: An Autohistoriographical Essay." pp. 513–26.
Examines the interstices between military service in the Namibian-Angolan "Border War" and academic expertise in the writing of its history.
Examines the interstices between military service in the Namibian-Angolan "Border War" and academic expertise in the writing of its history.
Cole, Anna. "'The History That Has Made You.' Ego-Histoire, Autobiography and Postcolonial History." pp. 527–38.
Uses insider/outsider status as a British migrant and a naturalized Australian to reconsider the dynamics of colonialism and post-colonialism in the two countries.
Uses insider/outsider status as a British migrant and a naturalized Australian to reconsider the dynamics of colonialism and post-colonialism in the two countries.
Beard, Laura J. "'Accurate History and Facts' or Memoir?: Unravelling the Weave of History and Life Narrative in the Black Hills." pp. 539–51.
Explores the challenges of writing about a life narrative written by an ancestor.
Explores the challenges of writing about a life narrative written by an ancestor.
Buzacott, Lucy. "History, Fiction, Autobiography: William Faulkner's 'Mississippi.'" pp. 553–66.
Interrogates the moments when Faulkner's representation of his family, history, and memory slips between the personal and the historical or collective.
Interrogates the moments when Faulkner's representation of his family, history, and memory slips between the personal and the historical or collective.
Shahbazi, Shima. "Microhistory Narratives, Alternative Epistemologies and Epistemic Credibility: A Comparative Study of Haifa Zangana's City of Widows and Leilah Nadir's Orange Trees of Baghdad." pp. 567–82.
Demonstrates how Iraqi women's lifewriting narratives offer a discourse of resistance challenging white savior, imperialist, and colonial narratives produced to justify the American invasion as a benevolent act.
Demonstrates how Iraqi women's lifewriting narratives offer a discourse of resistance challenging white savior, imperialist, and colonial narratives produced to justify the American invasion as a benevolent act.
Mehta, Divya. "'An Autobiographical Myth': Recuperating History in Suniti Namjoshi's Goja." pp. 583–99.
Shows that although Namjoshi's quest in Goja to reconcile the class polarities of her childhood remains unfulfilled and incomplete, the autobiography contributes to an inventive alternative chronicling of a personal and larger social history.
Shows that although Namjoshi's quest in Goja to reconcile the class polarities of her childhood remains unfulfilled and incomplete, the autobiography contributes to an inventive alternative chronicling of a personal and larger social history.
Jensen, Bernard Eric. "Exploring Human Subjectivity: Barbara Taylor's Autobiographies." pp. 601–15.
Analyzes how Canadian-British historian Barbara Taylor's pasts played a decisive role in the unfolding of her personal life and professional career.
Analyzes how Canadian-British historian Barbara Taylor's pasts played a decisive role in the unfolding of her personal life and professional career.
Pihlainen, Kalle. "Experience, Materiality and the Rules of Past Writing: Interrogating Reference." pp. 617–35.
Foregrounds differences between history and autobiography as past-oriented genres to understand their specifically "historical" commitments and attempts to transgress them.
Foregrounds differences between history and autobiography as past-oriented genres to understand their specifically "historical" commitments and attempts to transgress them.
Oksman, Tahneer, and Seamus O'Malley, editors. The Comics of Julie Doucet and Gabrielle Bell: A Place Inside Yourself. Critical Approaches to Comics Artists, UP of Mississippi, 2019.
Oksman, Tahneer. "Introduction: A Shared Space." pp. xi–lvi.
Introduces the lives, works, and critical reception of Julie Doucet and Gabrielle Bell, and the academic essays and five republished interviews in this volume that examine these influential contemporary autobiographical cartoonists in relation to each other.
Introduces the lives, works, and critical reception of Julie Doucet and Gabrielle Bell, and the academic essays and five republished interviews in this volume that examine these influential contemporary autobiographical cartoonists in relation to each other.
Galvan, Margaret. "From Julie Doucet to Gabrielle Bell: Feminist Genealogies of Comics Anthologies." p. 3–22.
Discusses Doucet's and Bell's works in the context of the communities formed by comics anthologies and the "indirect collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas" that stems more generally from their production.
Discusses Doucet's and Bell's works in the context of the communities formed by comics anthologies and the "indirect collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas" that stems more generally from their production.
Stark, Jessica. "My Most Secret Boredom: (Dis)Affective Narrative in Julie Doucet's 'A Day in Julie Doucet's Life' and Hergé's 'Adventures with Tintin: The Broken Ear.'" pp. 23–44.
Scrutinizes Doucet's and Hergé's approaches to boredom to argue that Tintin's presence in Doucet's work allies her work with, and distances it from, a male comics lineage.
Scrutinizes Doucet's and Hergé's approaches to boredom to argue that Tintin's presence in Doucet's work allies her work with, and distances it from, a male comics lineage.
Pendergast, Natalie. "Julie Doucet's 'Monkey and the Living Dead' as Subliminal Autobiography." pp. 47–74.
Shows that the visual symbolism of "Monkey and the Living Dead" can be reread through Doucet's later stories to develop the meanings of both and to break down the barriers between memory and creation, and fact and fiction.
Shows that the visual symbolism of "Monkey and the Living Dead" can be reread through Doucet's later stories to develop the meanings of both and to break down the barriers between memory and creation, and fact and fiction.
Hildebrand, Sarah. "Ghost Cats and the Specter of Self: Telling Trauma in the Works of Gabrielle Bell." pp. 75–94.
Looks at depictions of trauma in Gabrielle Bell's works, and contends that her drawn persona distances herself from victimization and avoids the confessional mode, thus testifying to the need for alternative modes for reading trauma.
Looks at depictions of trauma in Gabrielle Bell's works, and contends that her drawn persona distances herself from victimization and avoids the confessional mode, thus testifying to the need for alternative modes for reading trauma.
Richardson, Sarah. "A Very Dirty Word: Cuteness as Affective Strategy in the Comics of Julie Doucet." pp. 97–121.
Utilizes the notion of cuteness and Sianne Ngai's delineations of the "pathos of powerlessness" at the heart of cuteness to reveal how "cute qualities" interact with, and often subvert, the power dynamics of gender politics in Doucet's work.
Utilizes the notion of cuteness and Sianne Ngai's delineations of the "pathos of powerlessness" at the heart of cuteness to reveal how "cute qualities" interact with, and often subvert, the power dynamics of gender politics in Doucet's work.
Cardell, Kylie. "Drawn to Life: The Diary as Method and Politics in the Comics Arts of Gabrielle Bell and Julie Doucet." pp. 122–41.
Examines how Bell and Doucet negotiate the political and rhetorical functions of the diary as an ideologically gendered method and mode in a number of their texts.
Examines how Bell and Doucet negotiate the political and rhetorical functions of the diary as an ideologically gendered method and mode in a number of their texts.
Køhlert, Frederik Byrn. "'At This Point I Become Real': Experimental Autobiography in Julie Doucet and Michel Gondry's Comics/Video Hybrid My New New York Diary." pp. 145–63.
Argues that the assorted, dynamic ways Doucet and Gondry play with relationships between drawings and video disrupt hierarchical notions of the real in relation to the unreal, and the animate in relation to the static, which ask questions about the ethical imperative at stake in collaborative auto/biographical projections.
Argues that the assorted, dynamic ways Doucet and Gondry play with relationships between drawings and video disrupt hierarchical notions of the real in relation to the unreal, and the animate in relation to the static, which ask questions about the ethical imperative at stake in collaborative auto/biographical projections.
O'Malley, Seamus. "'Everyone Looks through Peepholes': Voyeurism in the Voyeurs." pp. 164–187.
Calls on readers to view Bell's works as an opportunity to contemplate how readers situate themselves in relation to seeing others to envision how community is formed.
Calls on readers to view Bell's works as an opportunity to contemplate how readers situate themselves in relation to seeing others to envision how community is formed.
Parnell, Jo, editor. New and Experimental Approaches to Writing Lives. Red Globe Press, 2019.
McMillen, Caroline. "Foreword." p. vii.
Supports the book's aim of bringing science and life writing together.
Supports the book's aim of bringing science and life writing together.
Parnell, Jo. "Editor's Preface." pp. x–xv.
Explains that the collection focuses on lifewriting practices rather than texts.
Explains that the collection focuses on lifewriting practices rather than texts.
Craig, Hugh. "Introduction." pp. 1–11.
Introduces the essays in the collection, and describes how they incorporate theoretical background, worked examples, and practical exercises for writers.
Introduces the essays in the collection, and describes how they incorporate theoretical background, worked examples, and practical exercises for writers.
Norman, Amanda. "Obituaries: Behind the Public Tribute." pp. 15–33.
Examines the obituary as providing an alternative approach to life writing, and discusses how to source, collate, and analyze obituaries for scholarly research.
Examines the obituary as providing an alternative approach to life writing, and discusses how to source, collate, and analyze obituaries for scholarly research.
Brien, Donna L. "Writing the Lives of Objects and Things." pp. 34–47.
Provides a guide to using Thing Theory to write object biographies, which center non-human things, objects, and artefacts as the subjects of biographical life stories.
Provides a guide to using Thing Theory to write object biographies, which center non-human things, objects, and artefacts as the subjects of biographical life stories.
Walker, David. "Burra's Giant Onion and the Battle of the Somme." pp. 48–62.
Ponders how writers can capture ordinary lives and the importance of doing so.
Ponders how writers can capture ordinary lives and the importance of doing so.
Parnell, Jo. "Revealing What It Means to Be Human: The Nature of Literary Docu-Memoir." pp. 63–81.
Teases out key aspects of literary docu-memoir by discussing Tony Parker's innovation and considering a few examples of docu-memoirs.
Teases out key aspects of literary docu-memoir by discussing Tony Parker's innovation and considering a few examples of docu-memoirs.
Sala, Michael. "The Struggle in Karl Ove Knausgaard's My Struggle." pp. 82–98.
Explores the literary act Knausgaard performs in My Struggle, for its novelty, and its dark and paradoxical aspects.
Explores the literary act Knausgaard performs in My Struggle, for its novelty, and its dark and paradoxical aspects.
Huber, Sonya. "Mapping Lives: (re)making place." pp. 101–13.
Describes how map-based essays depict the place itself as encountered over time.
Describes how map-based essays depict the place itself as encountered over time.
Berry, Vanessa. "Spatial Experiments: Autobiographical Cartography." pp. 114–32.
Charts the emergence of map-embedded and map-influenced life writing, and examines how to use creative cartography to write autobiographies, particularly about place.
Charts the emergence of map-embedded and map-influenced life writing, and examines how to use creative cartography to write autobiographies, particularly about place.
Newport, Emma. "Brief Encounters: Curating GIFs, Memes and Social Media for Short Story Life-Writing." pp. 133–50.
Argues that the digital realm offers new expressive possibilities, which challenge the basis for life writing by introducing a new sense of self.
Argues that the digital realm offers new expressive possibilities, which challenge the basis for life writing by introducing a new sense of self.
Richards, Page. "Biographical Lyric: Writing Lives in Poems." pp. 151–69.
Considers how lyric poetry, which creates circularity and backwards movement through rhyme and lineation, may be used to renovate life writing.
Considers how lyric poetry, which creates circularity and backwards movement through rhyme and lineation, may be used to renovate life writing.
Wilkinson, Jessica L. "Writing Lines, Writing Lives: The Art of Poetic Biography." pp. 170–185.
Discusses four examples of poetic biographies and their achievement in capturing fiction-like and emotional perspectives as they render the lives of historical figures.
Discusses four examples of poetic biographies and their achievement in capturing fiction-like and emotional perspectives as they render the lives of historical figures.
McDonald, Willa "Giving Voice: A Different Approach to Life Writing." pp. 189–203.
Challenges writers to specifically target their intellect, emotions, bodies, and spirits as they write, evaluate, and revise their writing to produce reflective and engaging texts.
Challenges writers to specifically target their intellect, emotions, bodies, and spirits as they write, evaluate, and revise their writing to produce reflective and engaging texts.
Douglas, Kate. "Autobiographical Writing for Children: Anh Do's The Little Refugee and Malala Yousafzai's Malala's Magic Pencil." pp. 204–219.
Engages issues of collaboration, the representation of trauma, double awareness in narration, and the power of the moral in the illustrated children's books Malala Yousafzai and Anh Do wrote about their lives.
Engages issues of collaboration, the representation of trauma, double awareness in narration, and the power of the moral in the illustrated children's books Malala Yousafzai and Anh Do wrote about their lives.
PMLA, vol. 134, no. 3, 2019, cluster on "On Hillary Chute's Why Comics?"
Bechdel, Alison. "Why Comics? A Question." pp. 569–71.
Offers personal observations on Why Comics? and comics studies in a comic strip.
Offers personal observations on Why Comics? and comics studies in a comic strip.
Burt, Stephanie. "Why Not More Comics?" pp. 572–78.
Discusses how Chute constructs a canon for comics.
Discusses how Chute constructs a canon for comics.
Elias, Amy J. "Context Rocks!" pp. 579–87.
Describes Chute's work as a form of "rhetorical dialogics," and considers what this approach adds to the field of literary criticism.
Describes Chute's work as a form of "rhetorical dialogics," and considers what this approach adds to the field of literary criticism.
Fawaz, Ramzi. "A Queer Sequence: Comics as a Disruptive Medium." pp. 588–94.
Focuses on the tensions between the openness of comics and a tendency in literary studies to assimilate comics into another iteration of the novel.
Focuses on the tensions between the openness of comics and a tendency in literary studies to assimilate comics into another iteration of the novel.
Gardner, Jared. "A Nice Neighborhood." pp. 595–600.
Encourages comics studies to broaden the range of comics it considers.
Encourages comics studies to broaden the range of comics it considers.
Grove, Laurence. "Scotland, the Cradle of Comics." pp. 601–13.
Examines Scottish comics to engage questions about the nature of a comics canon.
Examines Scottish comics to engage questions about the nature of a comics canon.
Hoberek, Andrew. "Building and Unbuilding a Comics Canon." pp. 614–19.
Suggests a need for greater engagement with the material conditions that shape the work of comics scholars and critics as well as the texts they study.
Suggests a need for greater engagement with the material conditions that shape the work of comics scholars and critics as well as the texts they study.
Silady, Matt. "Three Wishes for Why Comics?" pp. 620–24.
Calls for greater visibility for marginalized voices in terms of creators and content, and for an examination of how comics may traumatize readers or encourage sex-positivity.
Calls for greater visibility for marginalized voices in terms of creators and content, and for an examination of how comics may traumatize readers or encourage sex-positivity.
Ware, Chris. "Panels and Pens." pp. 625–28.
Appreciates Hillary Chute as person and a comics scholar in a comic strip.
Appreciates Hillary Chute as person and a comics scholar in a comic strip.
Chute, Hillary. "Drawing Is a Way of Thinking." pp. 629–37.
Reflects on the intertwining of theory and practice in Why Comics? in response to the articles in the cluster.
Reflects on the intertwining of theory and practice in Why Comics? in response to the articles in the cluster.
Raynaud, Claudine, and Nelly Mok, editors. The Self as Other in Minority American Life Writing. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019.
Raynaud, Claudine and Nelly Mok. "Writing the Self as Other: Modes of Other-Writing in Minority American Life Writing." pp. 1–18.
Centers Lejeune's "I is an other" to consider otherness through the lens of race and ethnicity in twentieth-century and contemporary Native American, African American, Caribbean American, and Asian American life writers.
Centers Lejeune's "I is an other" to consider otherness through the lens of race and ethnicity in twentieth-century and contemporary Native American, African American, Caribbean American, and Asian American life writers.
Larré, Lionel. "Un Indien comme un autre:le travail autobiographique de John Milton Oskison." pp. 20–40.
Focuses on Oskison's writing of his territorial identity.
Focuses on Oskison's writing of his territorial identity.
Bouzonviller, Elisabeth. "Écriture de soi, écriture tribale: la famille, synecdoque de la tribudans les récits autobiographiques de Louise Erdrich." pp. 41–63.
Posits that the family is a synecdoche for the tribe in Louise Erdrich's autobiographical writings.
Posits that the family is a synecdoche for the tribe in Louise Erdrich's autobiographical writings.
Raynaud, Claudine. "The Writing Scenes of Autobiography: Reading Josephine Baker's Memoirs with Princess Tam Tam." pp. 66–83.
Highlights the autobiographical text as the locus of a tension where the artist's life remains her own, even in the midst of a stereotypical eroticized vision of the Other.
Highlights the autobiographical text as the locus of a tension where the artist's life remains her own, even in the midst of a stereotypical eroticized vision of the Other.
Valadié, Flora. "'Race is the Child of Racism': Self-Engendering and Autofiction beyond the Color Line in Fatheralong and Between the World and Me." pp. 84–97.
Brings together black fathers who write letters to their sons, and considers how they exemplify the need to rely on individual stories to break with linear time.
Brings together black fathers who write letters to their sons, and considers how they exemplify the need to rely on individual stories to break with linear time.
Ollier, Nicole. "Quand la fiction nourrit l'autobiographie: polyphonie dans Brother, I'm Dying d'Edwidge Danticat." pp. 100–19.
Analyzes polyphony in Edwidge Danticat's Brother, I'm Dying.
Analyzes polyphony in Edwidge Danticat's Brother, I'm Dying.
Kekeh-Dika, Andrée-Anne. "Jamaica Kincaid's Autobiographical Performance, or What Happens to Lines Deviated?" pp. 120–39.
Examines Kincaid's experimental writing approaches to the self from impersonal and highly singular shores.
Examines Kincaid's experimental writing approaches to the self from impersonal and highly singular shores.
Alexoae-Zagni, Nicoleta. "Reaching One's 'Supapawa' in Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being." pp. 142–63.
Discusses the hybridity inherent in Ozeki's post-Fukushima narrative.
Discusses the hybridity inherent in Ozeki's post-Fukushima narrative.
Thomas, Héloïse. "Experimental Life Writing and Relational Selves in the Works of Cathy Park Hong and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha." pp. 164–80.
Illustrates the tensions between the subject positions of immigrant and citizen in ethnic autobiographical life writing.
Illustrates the tensions between the subject positions of immigrant and citizen in ethnic autobiographical life writing.
Mok, Nelly. "L'auto/biographie, espace de réconciliation avec cet autre soi: écriture de soi et relationnalité dans After They Killed Our Father de Loung Ung." pp. 181–202.
Explores intersubjective dynamics in Loung Ung's first memoir.
Explores intersubjective dynamics in Loung Ung's first memoir.
Resina, Joan Ramon, editor. Inscribed Identities: Life Writing as Self-Realization. Routledge, 2019.
Resina, Joan Ramon. "Introduction." pp. 1–14.
Defines key terms in the book's title to frame summaries of the collected essays.
Defines key terms in the book's title to frame summaries of the collected essays.
Traverso, Enzo. "Jean Améry: Between Critical Reason and Despair." pp. 15–29.
Considers Améry's self-writing as an autobiographical mosaic in light of his statement that all writing is autobiographical.
Considers Améry's self-writing as an autobiographical mosaic in light of his statement that all writing is autobiographical.
Monegal, Antonio. "The Novel as Life Writing: Fiction and Testimony in Jorge Semprún and Imre Kertész." pp. 30–41.
Assesses the contributions fiction about the Holocaust offers to testimonial literature.
Assesses the contributions fiction about the Holocaust offers to testimonial literature.
Roussel, Martin. "Life—Death—Writing: Robert Walser's Snow Images." pp. 42–60.
Identifies Walser's metaphoric interplay of pictures with writing as intermedial.
Identifies Walser's metaphoric interplay of pictures with writing as intermedial.
McNeill, Laurie. "Assumed Identity: Writing and Reading Testimony through and as Anne Frank." pp. 61–74. Identifies "Anne Franking" as the process by which young writers of war and atrocity testimonies assume or are given her identity.
Smith, Sidonie. "Autobiographical Inscription and the Identity Assemblage." pp. 75–90.
Discusses the Orwell Project of autobiographical disidentification by the artist Hasan M. Elahi after his classification by the FBI as "a person of interest" in the wake of the September 11 World Trade Center bombing as a case study of "assemblage theory."
Discusses the Orwell Project of autobiographical disidentification by the artist Hasan M. Elahi after his classification by the FBI as "a person of interest" in the wake of the September 11 World Trade Center bombing as a case study of "assemblage theory."
Viestenz, William. "Lines of Flight: Self-Writing and the Assembled Body in Kirmen Uribe's Bilbao-New York-Bilbao." pp. 91–106.
Suggests that writing be viewed as a way to catalyze nodes of contact that bring potentialities enfolded within the given world to fruition, based on Deleuze and Guattari's concept of assemblage.
Suggests that writing be viewed as a way to catalyze nodes of contact that bring potentialities enfolded within the given world to fruition, based on Deleuze and Guattari's concept of assemblage.
Söffner, Jan. "How to Stay Alive in Your Own Story—Ulysses in Dante and Homer." pp. 107–17.
Demonstrates that the desire for an ephemeral afterlife requiring a living person to lend a complete and embodied existence to a remembered person has been present throughout the history of literary experiencing.
Demonstrates that the desire for an ephemeral afterlife requiring a living person to lend a complete and embodied existence to a remembered person has been present throughout the history of literary experiencing.
Resina, Joan Ramon. "Life in the Dream: Freud's Self-Display through Screen Cultural Memories." pp. 118–40.
Traces Freud's dialectic of revealing and disclosing in his self-analysis.
Traces Freud's dialectic of revealing and disclosing in his self-analysis.
Haase, Jenny. "Writing Oneself as Another—Writing Another as Oneself: Julia Kristeva and Teresa of Ávila." pp. 141–56.
Investigates Kristeva's reconstruction of the life of the sixteenth-century Spanish nun as a field of self-references.
Investigates Kristeva's reconstruction of the life of the sixteenth-century Spanish nun as a field of self-references.
Rugg, Linda Haverty. "Painting Faces: A Swedish Portraitist and His Native American Subjects in 18th-Century North America." pp. 157–71.
Views Gustavus Hesslius's paintings of Tishcohan and Lapowinsa, two Lepane nation members, as inscriptions of identity in which the signs of life arise from the gazes exchanged between the subject and the portraitist.
Views Gustavus Hesslius's paintings of Tishcohan and Lapowinsa, two Lepane nation members, as inscriptions of identity in which the signs of life arise from the gazes exchanged between the subject and the portraitist.
Rak, Julie. "The Afterlife of a Disaster: Everest 1996 Memoirs as Gendered Testimony." pp. 172–90.
Claims the purist critique of the Everest climb popularization betrays a "macho" rejection of women and non-white participants, whose presence threatens the narrative of authenticity in the self-realization and self-serving memoirs of white male climbers.
Claims the purist critique of the Everest climb popularization betrays a "macho" rejection of women and non-white participants, whose presence threatens the narrative of authenticity in the self-realization and self-serving memoirs of white male climbers.
Jané, Oscar. "Self-Writings and Egodocuments: Personal Memoirs in Catalonia (16th–19th Centuries)." pp. 191–202
Examines the proliferation of early modern first-person life writing in the rural world.
Examines the proliferation of early modern first-person life writing in the rural world.
Wagner-Egelhaaf, Martina, editor. Handbook of Autobiography/Autofiction. 3 vols., De Gruyter Reference, 2019.
Offers an overview of lifewriting theory, and histories and exemplary texts from Europe, the Arab World, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas in three volumes, enabling readers to collect and combine autobiographical research in a modular way. Volume I introduces concepts in short entries in three sections to discuss multiple theoretical approaches to autobiography, categories that have been applied in the study of autobiography/autofiction, and multiple autobiographical forms and genres. Volume II approaches the heterogeneity of writing traditions and concepts of time and history, divided into sections by world region and organized by epoch from antiquity to the present. Volume III includes exemplary texts excerpted from fifty-seven authors representing a range of times and locations, and is followed by a list of contributors, and a subject and name index for all three volumes.
Offers an overview of lifewriting theory, and histories and exemplary texts from Europe, the Arab World, Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas in three volumes, enabling readers to collect and combine autobiographical research in a modular way. Volume I introduces concepts in short entries in three sections to discuss multiple theoretical approaches to autobiography, categories that have been applied in the study of autobiography/autofiction, and multiple autobiographical forms and genres. Volume II approaches the heterogeneity of writing traditions and concepts of time and history, divided into sections by world region and organized by epoch from antiquity to the present. Volume III includes exemplary texts excerpted from fifty-seven authors representing a range of times and locations, and is followed by a list of contributors, and a subject and name index for all three volumes.
Articles and Essays
Abdugafurova, Donohon. "'I Was Born in the Wrong Time': The Concept of Selfhood in the Writings of Anbar Otin." Journal of Islamic and Muslim Studies, vol. 4, no. 1, 2019, pp. 66–86.
Draws on Anbar Otin's views of the concept of selfhood by employing her poetry and her only prose work Risali Falsafai Siyahan [Treatise on the Philosophy of Blackness].
Draws on Anbar Otin's views of the concept of selfhood by employing her poetry and her only prose work Risali Falsafai Siyahan [Treatise on the Philosophy of Blackness].
Aggleton, Jen. "Defining Digital Comics: a British Library Perspective." Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, vol. 10, no. 4, 2019, pp. 393–409.
Distinguishes digital from print comics and explores visual, functional, and sociocultural features of digital comics to present a flexible, composite working definition of digital comics.
Distinguishes digital from print comics and explores visual, functional, and sociocultural features of digital comics to present a flexible, composite working definition of digital comics.
Alshammari, Shahd. "Writing an Illness Narrative and Negotiating Identity: A Kuwaiti Academic/Author's Journey." Life Writing, vol. 16, no. 3, 2019, pp. 431–38.
Interrogates the process of healing, self-writing, and the reception of a work on disability.
Interrogates the process of healing, self-writing, and the reception of a work on disability.
Aramburu, Diana. "A Journey through Breast Cancer: Exploring the Body in Process in Isabel Franc and Susanna Martín's Graphic Breast Cancer Narrative." Life Writing, vol. 16, no. 3, 2019, pp. 397–412.
Posits that Franc and Martín's graphic novel emphasizes survival and empowerment in a breast cancer patient's story through the use of visibility, humor, and female solidarity.
Posits that Franc and Martín's graphic novel emphasizes survival and empowerment in a breast cancer patient's story through the use of visibility, humor, and female solidarity.
Bardsley, Larisa J. "Wholeness as a creative exploration of self." Survive & Thrive: A Journal for Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine, vol. 4, no. 1, 2019, n.p.
Draws from a psychologist's practice of witnessing her own stories through creative and practice-led research to show that attending to one's own stories can enhance one's capacity to be present and care for others.
Draws from a psychologist's practice of witnessing her own stories through creative and practice-led research to show that attending to one's own stories can enhance one's capacity to be present and care for others.
Baroni, Walter Stefano. "The Personal is Political. Self-enunciation Strategies in Italian Second-wave Feminism." Life Writing, vol. 16, no. 3, 2019, pp. 329–344.
Examines the self-writing strategies used by the feminist movement in Italy in the 1970s.
Examines the self-writing strategies used by the feminist movement in Italy in the 1970s.
Bascom, Ben. "Queer Anachronism: Jeffrey Brace and the Racialized Republic." Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory, vol. 75, no. 1, 2019, pp. 23–47.
Examines the memoir of Jeffrey Brace, a black Revolutionary War veteran and emancipated slave who settled in Vermont after his manumission in the 1780s.
Examines the memoir of Jeffrey Brace, a black Revolutionary War veteran and emancipated slave who settled in Vermont after his manumission in the 1780s.
Banerjee, Mita. "A Kaleidoscope of Color or the Agony of Race? Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father." Developing Transnational American Studies, edited by Nadja Gernalzick and Heike Spickermann, Universitätsverlag Winter, 2019, pp. 161–76.
Discusses the "kaleidoscope of difference" Barack Obama constructs in his memoir, and explicates it as showing there is a possibility for the differentiation of differences.
Discusses the "kaleidoscope of difference" Barack Obama constructs in his memoir, and explicates it as showing there is a possibility for the differentiation of differences.
Ben Driss, Hager. "Wounded Cities: Topographies of Self and Nation in Fay Afaf Kanafani's Nadia, Captive of Hope." Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 2, 2019, pp. 293–310.
Reads Kanafani's memoir as a metaphorical practice of autogeography, drawing on anthropological geography to investigate two major images related to urban spaces: the divided city and the gendered city.
Reads Kanafani's memoir as a metaphorical practice of autogeography, drawing on anthropological geography to investigate two major images related to urban spaces: the divided city and the gendered city.
Ben-Amos, Batsheva. "The Dialogical Dimension in the Diary of Chaim Kaplan: 1935–1942." European Journal of Jewish Studies, vol. 13, no. 2, 2019, pp. 227–62.
Interprets the published diary of Chaim Kaplan (1880–1942), principal and owner of a private elementary Hebrew school in Warsaw, through his available unpublished entries.
Interprets the published diary of Chaim Kaplan (1880–1942), principal and owner of a private elementary Hebrew school in Warsaw, through his available unpublished entries.
Birkle, Carmen. "An Eye for an I: Autobiographical Representations, the Medical Gaze, and the Transnational in Nineteenth-Century America." Developing Transnational American Studies, edited by Nadja Gernalzick and Heike Spickermann, Universitätsverlag Winter, 2019, pp. 113–28.
Uses Elizabeth Blackwell's autobiography to inquire into the process of becoming a female doctor in the nineteenth century, the contingencies of a gendered medical education system, and the difficulties female physicians encountered in delivering adequate care to female patients, linking the history of women's rights to historical developments in medicine.
Uses Elizabeth Blackwell's autobiography to inquire into the process of becoming a female doctor in the nineteenth century, the contingencies of a gendered medical education system, and the difficulties female physicians encountered in delivering adequate care to female patients, linking the history of women's rights to historical developments in medicine.
Bladek, Marta. "Moving on by Going Back: Spatial Figuration of Trauma and Recovery in Susan J. Brison's Aftermath: Violence and the Remaking of the Self." Studies in Testimony, vol. 2, no. 1, 2019, n.p.
Theorizes a spatial figuration of trauma, based on Brison's account of narrowly surviving a sexual attack, as the paradox of coming back to the site of a violation, metaphorically and literally, in order to distance herself from it.
Theorizes a spatial figuration of trauma, based on Brison's account of narrowly surviving a sexual attack, as the paradox of coming back to the site of a violation, metaphorically and literally, in order to distance herself from it.
Bloom, Lynn Z. "The Slippery Slope: Ideals and Ethical Issues in High Altitude Climbing." Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, vol. 6, no.1, n.p.
Discusses the Romantic background of high-altitude climbing narratives with a focus on the white, Western, largely male ethos of adventure and conquest literature, often with political under/overtones in three climbing stories.
Discusses the Romantic background of high-altitude climbing narratives with a focus on the white, Western, largely male ethos of adventure and conquest literature, often with political under/overtones in three climbing stories.
Blumberg, Angie. "Mary Butts and the 'War-fairy-tale': Femininity, Archaeology, and Great War Rhetoric in Ashe of Rings." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, vol. 38, no. 2, 2019, pp. 357–79.
Adds to a limited body of scholarship on writing by Mary Butts, develops an understanding of her significance as a woman writer of World War I, and offers a new way of reading literary mediations of the war through representations of material encounters with the past.
Adds to a limited body of scholarship on writing by Mary Butts, develops an understanding of her significance as a woman writer of World War I, and offers a new way of reading literary mediations of the war through representations of material encounters with the past.
Boer, Nienke. "Exploring British India: South African Prisoners of War as Imperial Travel Writers, 1899–1902." Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 54, no. 3, 2019, pp. 429–43.
Examines the precursors of postcolonial nationalism, and the historical and imaginative links between imperial peripheries in memoirs published immediately following the Anglo-Boer war by war prisoners held in camps in India and Ceylon.
Examines the precursors of postcolonial nationalism, and the historical and imaginative links between imperial peripheries in memoirs published immediately following the Anglo-Boer war by war prisoners held in camps in India and Ceylon.
Bomsta, Tanya. "The Performance of Epistemic Agency of the Autobiographical Subject in Terry Tempest Williams's When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice." Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, vol. 6, no.1, n.p.
Investigates how Williams's autobiographical creative nonfiction engages with the revelation of her mother's empty journals with an eye towards self-understanding.
Investigates how Williams's autobiographical creative nonfiction engages with the revelation of her mother's empty journals with an eye towards self-understanding.
Brännlund, Isabelle. "Familiar Places: A History of Place Attachment in a South Sami Community." Genealogy, vol. 3, no. 4, 2019.
Shows that land represents home as part of family history and identity within local Sami communities, while state projects that confine Sami land title to reindeer husbandry restricted families and individuals from developing their culture and livelihoods as Sami.
Shows that land represents home as part of family history and identity within local Sami communities, while state projects that confine Sami land title to reindeer husbandry restricted families and individuals from developing their culture and livelihoods as Sami.
Braud, Michel. "Écriture intime et tentation suicidaire." Revue des Sciences Humaines, no. 335, 2019, pp. 59–72.
Examines how diarists depict suicidal temptation and why they confide this in diaries.
Examines how diarists depict suicidal temptation and why they confide this in diaries.
———. "Limites de la labilité: aux marges du journal intime." Labilité des genres: le désir du hors genre, edited by Françoise Buisson and Arnaud Schmitt, PUPPA, 2018, pp. 53–64.
Shows that diaries present many hybridized forms, whether by colonizing new media (internet, cartoon, film), by combining with other genres (poetry, essay), or by rewriting (autobiographical novel, etc.), but the boundary with fiction remains insurmountable.
Shows that diaries present many hybridized forms, whether by colonizing new media (internet, cartoon, film), by combining with other genres (poetry, essay), or by rewriting (autobiographical novel, etc.), but the boundary with fiction remains insurmountable.
———. "Temps et récit dans les Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée." Op. cit., revue des littératures et des arts, no. 19, 2018.
Argues that, for Simone de Beauvoir, in Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée, existence is a story, so creating her story is a way to create herself.
Argues that, for Simone de Beauvoir, in Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée, existence is a story, so creating her story is a way to create herself.
Brockmeier, Jens. "Memory, Narrative, and the Consequences." Topics in Cognitive Science, vol. 11, no. 4, 2019, pp. 821–24.
Examines the impact narrative models of remembering have on psychological memory research.
Examines the impact narrative models of remembering have on psychological memory research.
———. "Narrative Modelle." Kulturpsychologie in interdisziplinärer Perspektive, edited by Jürgen Straub, Pradeep Chakkarath, and Gala Rebane, Psychosozial-Verlag, pp. 227–43.
Summarizes historical and present approaches to the central concept of understanding in European philosophy and human sciences, drawing on Gadamer's idea of dialogue as a basic way to understand human reality.
Summarizes historical and present approaches to the central concept of understanding in European philosophy and human sciences, drawing on Gadamer's idea of dialogue as a basic way to understand human reality.
———. "What is it to be a Human being? Rom Harré on Self and Identity." The Second Cognitive Revolution: A Tribute to Rom Harré, edited by Bo Allesoe Christensen, Springer, 2019, pp. 43–49.
Builds on the work of British philosopher Rom Harré, a protagonist of the "discursive turn" in contemporary human and social sciences, to argue that there is no ultimate answer to the question what it is to be a human being.
Builds on the work of British philosopher Rom Harré, a protagonist of the "discursive turn" in contemporary human and social sciences, to argue that there is no ultimate answer to the question what it is to be a human being.
Brueck, Laura R. "Narrating Dalit womanhood and the Aesthetics of Autobiography." The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 54, no. 1, 2019, pp. 25–37.
Recommends diligent textual analysis of Dalit women's life writing to avoid facile stereotyping, while emphasizing its collective, relational, and gendered character.
Recommends diligent textual analysis of Dalit women's life writing to avoid facile stereotyping, while emphasizing its collective, relational, and gendered character.
Cai, Zhiquan. "The Generic Dilemma and Breakthrough: Taking David Lodge's Biographical Novels as an Example." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 12, 2019, pp. 53–68.
Contends that the biographical novel embodies the elements of biography, novel, and literary criticism and crosses non-fiction, fiction, and literary research.
Contends that the biographical novel embodies the elements of biography, novel, and literary criticism and crosses non-fiction, fiction, and literary research.
Canada, Mark. "Learning to Scribble with Benjamin Franklin." a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, vol. 34, no. 2, 2019, pp. 347–56.
Shows writing teachers how to capitalize on the lessons in Benjamin Franklin's autobiography that speak to young writers about the means to and rewards of learning to scribble.
Shows writing teachers how to capitalize on the lessons in Benjamin Franklin's autobiography that speak to young writers about the means to and rewards of learning to scribble.
Cannon, Sarita. "Reading, Writing, and Resistance in Audre Lorde's Zami: A New Spelling of My Name." Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 2, 2019, pp. 335–54.
Shows how Audre Lorde redefines literacy as a dialogic and recursive process of consuming and creating narratives within a woman-centered community.
Shows how Audre Lorde redefines literacy as a dialogic and recursive process of consuming and creating narratives within a woman-centered community.
Cao, Lei. "A Biography of the Time and an Autobiography of the Soul: A Study on Letters of Madame de Sévigné." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 13, 2019, pp. 138–52.
Reads Letters of Madame de Sévigné as a biography of the time and an autobiography of the soul.
Reads Letters of Madame de Sévigné as a biography of the time and an autobiography of the soul.
Chansky, Ricia Anne. "Teaching Hurricane María: Disaster Pedagogy and the Ugly Auto/Biography." Pedagogy, vol. 19, no. 1, 2019, pp. 1–23.
Argues that working with unrevised, real-time auto/biographical narratives allows faculty to be present and active for students in times of crisis and tragedy, teach complex and nuanced critical reading skills, and model vital research practices.
Argues that working with unrevised, real-time auto/biographical narratives allows faculty to be present and active for students in times of crisis and tragedy, teach complex and nuanced critical reading skills, and model vital research practices.
Chaturvedi, Vinayak. "From Oral History to Intellectual History (and the Unintended Autobiography)." South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, vol. 41, no. 4, 2018, pp. 846–62.
Explains how the nexus between oral and intellectual history in the Bengali Intellectuals Oral History Project, which constructs an "unintended autobiography," offers ways to rethink methodological approaches to writing the intellectual history of South Asia.
Explains how the nexus between oral and intellectual history in the Bengali Intellectuals Oral History Project, which constructs an "unintended autobiography," offers ways to rethink methodological approaches to writing the intellectual history of South Asia.
Chen, Hanying, Yang Yu, and Zhanghua Yu. "On the Contribution of the Periodicals in the Republican Period to Chinese Modern Biography." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 12, 2019, pp. 149–60.
Reports on archival research from biographical works and data in Republican periodicals.
Reports on archival research from biographical works and data in Republican periodicals.
Chen, Wenyu. "Peritexts in David Lodge's Author, Author and A Man of Parts: From the Perspective of Genette's Theory of Paratexts." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 12, 2019, pp. 69–81.
Elucidates how peritexts reduce the distance between the author and the reader.
Elucidates how peritexts reduce the distance between the author and the reader.
Chen, Yu Min Claire. "Writing Beyond the Personal: History, Memoir, and Fiction in Maxine Hong Kingston's The Fifth Book of Peace." a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, vol. 34, no. 2, 2019, pp. 257–70.
Considers how Kingston intertwines history, personal experience, and philosophical reflection to rewrite the meaning of silence and reconstruct loss through reconciliation.
Considers how Kingston intertwines history, personal experience, and philosophical reflection to rewrite the meaning of silence and reconstruct loss through reconciliation.
Christensen, Karen. "Thanks for Typing: The Invisible Wives, Daughters, Mothers, and Other Women Behind Famous Men." LOGOS, vol. 30, no. 2, 2019, pp. 12–18.
Reflects on the "Thanks for Typing" conference held at Oxford University in March 2019, which explored the experiences of women who worked as literary helpmeets for famous men as typists, assistants, muses, or managers of their affairs.
Reflects on the "Thanks for Typing" conference held at Oxford University in March 2019, which explored the experiences of women who worked as literary helpmeets for famous men as typists, assistants, muses, or managers of their affairs.
Chu, Fumin. "The Identity Discourses in Lisa See's Family Memoir On Gold Mountain: A Family Memoir of Love, Struggle and Survival." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 12, 2019, pp. 124–35.
Examines Chinese Americans' appeal to ethnicity, politics, and gender in identity discourse.
Examines Chinese Americans' appeal to ethnicity, politics, and gender in identity discourse.
Dagenais, Natasha. "Reclaiming Indigenous Space through Testimonial Life Writing: An Antane Kapesh's Je suis une maudite Sauvagesse as Territorial Imperative." Contested Spaces, Counter-Narratives, and Culture from Below in Canada and Québec, edited by Roxanne Rimstead and Domenico A. Beneventi, U of Toronto P, 2019, pp. 188–211.
Explores the textual and discursive strategies of Aboriginal testimonial as territorial imperative in Kapesh's bilingual Montagnais-French text.
Explores the textual and discursive strategies of Aboriginal testimonial as territorial imperative in Kapesh's bilingual Montagnais-French text.
Davies, Kerrie. "The Flâneur as a Motif of Timelessness in Auto/biography." TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses, vol. 23, no. 1, 2019, n.p.
Argues that the mindset of a flâneur suits the writer on a quest, and the slash between auto and biography is dissolved via the flâneur becoming a motif of timelessness.
Argues that the mindset of a flâneur suits the writer on a quest, and the slash between auto and biography is dissolved via the flâneur becoming a motif of timelessness.
Davis, Marlow. "Monumental and Ephemeral Chronotopes in Iraida Barry's Polyphonic Autobiography." AvtobiografiЯ, no. 8, 2019, pp. 281–96.
Argues that the co-presence of the two chronotopes produces a polyphonic autobiography.
Argues that the co-presence of the two chronotopes produces a polyphonic autobiography.
Deák, George. "Ervin Sinkó's Search for Community: The Early Years, 1898–1919." Hungarian Cultural Studies, e-Journal of the American Hungarian Educators Association, vol. 12, 2019.
Describes how the experience of anti-Semitism and traumas in the First World War led Ervin Sinkó to support communism, only to abandon communism in favor of an idiosyncratic form of Christianity during the Soviet Republic's regime.
Describes how the experience of anti-Semitism and traumas in the First World War led Ervin Sinkó to support communism, only to abandon communism in favor of an idiosyncratic form of Christianity during the Soviet Republic's regime.
Del Olmo Ibáñez, María-Teresa. "'Auto-biobibliography' for Reading Teaching." Current Perspectives on Literary Reading, edited by Dari Escandell and José Rovira-Collado, John Benjamins PC, 2019, pp. 69–90.
Develops the concepts of biobibliography and "auto-biobibliography."
Develops the concepts of biobibliography and "auto-biobibliography."
———. "Biografías de ciudades en Marañón y Gómez de la Serna." Revista de Occidente, no. 451, 2018, pp. 80–94.
Presents the city as a biographical subject and writing about the city as biography.
Presents the city as a biographical subject and writing about the city as biography.
———. "CLIL Methodology through Biography." Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied Education, vol. 16, no. 7, 2019, pp. 44–49.
Proposes a methodology that uses biography to help students understand the process of socialization and insertion of subjects into the culture of the target language.
Proposes a methodology that uses biography to help students understand the process of socialization and insertion of subjects into the culture of the target language.
Den Elzen, Katrin. "Finding Happiness and Wellbeing in the Face of Extreme Adversity." British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, vol. 47, no. 2, 2019, pp. 143–56.
Examines two memoirs depicting multiple loss and disability in order to analyze how people find happiness and create well-being when confronted by extreme adversity.
Examines two memoirs depicting multiple loss and disability in order to analyze how people find happiness and create well-being when confronted by extreme adversity.
Drewniak, Dagmara. "'This Has Been a Painful Story to Tell': Excavating Stories of Motherhood, Alcohol Abuse, and Writing in Two North American Memoirs: Lit by Mary Karr and Drunk Mom by Jowita Bydlowska." a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, vol. 34, no. 2, 2019, pp. 197–210.
Explores the ways Karr and Bydlowska try to cope with alcohol addiction and motherhood.
Explores the ways Karr and Bydlowska try to cope with alcohol addiction and motherhood.
Dryburgh, Marjorie E. "Life Histories and National Narratives: Remembering Occupied Manchuria in Post-War China." History Workshop Journal, vol. 88, 2019, pp. 229–51.
Analyzes oral histories of Japanese-run wartime education from northeast China as these complicate orthodox state-centered narratives of oppression and resistance.
Analyzes oral histories of Japanese-run wartime education from northeast China as these complicate orthodox state-centered narratives of oppression and resistance.
———. "Re-centring Education in Manshūkoku (1931–1945): School and Family in Chinese Oral History." Japan Forum, 2019.
Reconstructs Chinese family engagement with Japanese-run, occupation-era education in the city of Dalian, northeast China.
Reconstructs Chinese family engagement with Japanese-run, occupation-era education in the city of Dalian, northeast China.
Duchin, Adi, and Hadas Wiseman. "Memoirs of Child Survivors of the Holocaust: Processing and Healing of Trauma Through Writing." Qualitative Psychology, vol. 6, no. 3, 2019, pp. 280–296.
Uses a narrative approach to examine the processes of writing and publishing in relation to processing and healing from massive trauma, and explores the dialectical tensions the texts reveal between a wordless space and self-narration, aloneness and the quest for connectedness, and the personal space and the public space.
Uses a narrative approach to examine the processes of writing and publishing in relation to processing and healing from massive trauma, and explores the dialectical tensions the texts reveal between a wordless space and self-narration, aloneness and the quest for connectedness, and the personal space and the public space.
Durán, Isabel. "Life As Role-Play: Ilan Stavans, The Life (Long) Writer." Stavans Unbound: The Critic Between Two Canons, edited by Bridget Kevane, Academic Studies Press, 2019, pp. 7–18.
Analyzes Stavans's memoirs, but also other genres (interviews), where Stavans embraces his liminal identity, that of a self-described half and half who exists in a no man's land.
Analyzes Stavans's memoirs, but also other genres (interviews), where Stavans embraces his liminal identity, that of a self-described half and half who exists in a no man's land.
———. "Transnationalism, Autobiography, and Criticism: The Space of Women's Imagination." Routledge Companion to Transnational American Studies, edited by Nina Morgan, Alfred Hornung, and Takayuki Tatsumi, Routledge, 2019, pp. 202–14.
Examines cultural translations between Canada, the US, England, and Spain that provide for an intersection of gender and transnationalism in the exercise of "autocritography," which establishes life writing as a transnational genre.
Examines cultural translations between Canada, the US, England, and Spain that provide for an intersection of gender and transnationalism in the exercise of "autocritography," which establishes life writing as a transnational genre.
Eaton, Oline. "'Bad' Biography Exposed!: A Critical Analysis of American Super-Pop." Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 2, 2019, pp. 355–77.
Theorizes so-called "popular biography" within twentieth-century American popular nonfiction and celebrity journalism, analyzing its conventions and centrality to celebrity discourse.
Theorizes so-called "popular biography" within twentieth-century American popular nonfiction and celebrity journalism, analyzing its conventions and centrality to celebrity discourse.
Edgar, Robert, Fraser Mann, and Helen Pleasance. "Music, Memory and Memoir: Critical and creative engagement with an emerging genre." Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, vol. 11, no. 1–2, 2019, pp. 181–99.
Outlines a plural and flexible methodology for engaging with contemporary music memoir.
Outlines a plural and flexible methodology for engaging with contemporary music memoir.
Edwards, Natalie. "Translingual Life Writing: Vassilis Alexakis, Hélène Cixous, Lydie Salvayre." L'Esprit Créateur, vol. 59, no. 4, 2019, pp. 124–36.
Argues that three celebrated French authors bring another language into their writing in order to write intimately, personally, and confessionally.
Argues that three celebrated French authors bring another language into their writing in order to write intimately, personally, and confessionally.
Elsner, Anna Magdalena. "Beyond Medical Paternalism: Undoing the Doctor-Patient Relationship in Simone de Beauvoir's A Very Easy Death." Literature and Medicine, vol. 37, no. 2, 2019, pp. 420–41.
Argues that the previous critical focus on breaches of medical ethics occludes the role Beauvoir plays in the doctor-patient relationship and proposes that the withholding of the cancer diagnosis emerges as a form of maternal caregiving.
Argues that the previous critical focus on breaches of medical ethics occludes the role Beauvoir plays in the doctor-patient relationship and proposes that the withholding of the cancer diagnosis emerges as a form of maternal caregiving.
Erman, Irina. "Autobiography of a 'Living Plagiary': Vasilii Rozanov's Secret Dostoevskian Genealogy." AvtobiografiЯ, no. 7, 2018, pp. 171–90.
Argues that Rozanov wrote himself into a Dostoevskian genealogy of his own making, while also developing an original authorial persona that combined autobiographical referentiality with a subjectivity enacted primarily through interaction with others' texts.
Argues that Rozanov wrote himself into a Dostoevskian genealogy of his own making, while also developing an original authorial persona that combined autobiographical referentiality with a subjectivity enacted primarily through interaction with others' texts.
Everton, Shana. "Through the Looking Glass: Biographical Writing as Self-reflection." Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, vol. 11, no. 1–2, 2019, pp. 29–43.
Discusses the production of a multi-subject biographical narrative of women who have become mothers through adoption, surrogacy, and egg donation; and birth mothers, surrogates, and egg donors.
Discusses the production of a multi-subject biographical narrative of women who have become mothers through adoption, surrogacy, and egg donation; and birth mothers, surrogates, and egg donors.
Fan, Lulu. "Time Shaping Strategies and Biographee's Identity Construction of Chinese Film Biography." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 13, 2019, pp. 193–207.
Examines narrative time and identifies intercepting and retrospective time as two typical time-shaping strategies designed to embody the ethical intent of the director and that play an essential role in constructing the biographee's identity.
Examines narrative time and identifies intercepting and retrospective time as two typical time-shaping strategies designed to embody the ethical intent of the director and that play an essential role in constructing the biographee's identity.
Featherstone, Simon. "Orality, Text and Witness in the Early Work of Tony Parker." Life Writing, vol. 16, no. 3, 2019, pp. 385–96.
By analyzing the formal experimentation used to turn interviews into books, complicates Parker's reputation as an oral historian who let informants "speak for themselves."
By analyzing the formal experimentation used to turn interviews into books, complicates Parker's reputation as an oral historian who let informants "speak for themselves."
Fishkin, Shelley Fisher. "Originally of Missouri, Now of the Universe: Mark Twain and the World." Developing Transnational American Studies, edited by Nadja Gernalzick and Heike Spickermann, Universitätsverlag Winter, 2019, pp. 19–31.
Addresses Twain's movement between the United States and regions and continents he visited, and his knowledge of other languages to reveal his transnationalism.
Addresses Twain's movement between the United States and regions and continents he visited, and his knowledge of other languages to reveal his transnationalism.
Forster, Margaret. "He Tātai Whenua: Environmental Genealogies." Genealogy, vol. 3, no. 3, 2019, n.p.
Argues that whakapapa, a Māori form of genealogy, is much more than a method for mapping kinship relationships.
Argues that whakapapa, a Māori form of genealogy, is much more than a method for mapping kinship relationships.
Fox, Meghan C. "Alison Bechdel's Fun Home: Queer Futurity and the Metamodernist Memoir." MFS: Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 65, no. 3, 2019, pp. 511–37.
Posits that Fun Home calls forth new models of queer subjectivity, supplants patriarchal genealogies with queer kinship structures that honor affinity rather than filiation, and engenders an enduring sense of queer futurity.
Posits that Fun Home calls forth new models of queer subjectivity, supplants patriarchal genealogies with queer kinship structures that honor affinity rather than filiation, and engenders an enduring sense of queer futurity.
French, Lindsay. "Refugee Narratives; Oral History and Ethnography; Stories and Silence." The Oral History Review, vol. 46, no. 2, 2019, pp. 267–76.
Addresses the challenges of working ethically and reflexively with refugees, migrants, and others whose life circumstances place them in positions of great precarity, and argues for the usefulness of practices of oral history and ethnography for this work.
Addresses the challenges of working ethically and reflexively with refugees, migrants, and others whose life circumstances place them in positions of great precarity, and argues for the usefulness of practices of oral history and ethnography for this work.
Freund, Alexander. "Long Shadows over New Beginnings? Oral History in Contemporary China." The Oral History Review, vol. 46, no. 1, 2019, pp. 1–25.
Reviews some aspects of the twentieth-century history of oral history in China and its more recent developments to offer some lessons for oral historians today.
Reviews some aspects of the twentieth-century history of oral history in China and its more recent developments to offer some lessons for oral historians today.
Friend, Craig Thompson. "Lunsford Lane and Me: Life-Writings and Public Histories of an Enslaved Other." Journal of the Early Republic, vol. 39, no. 1, 2019, pp. 1–26.
Considers how Lunsford Lane has been interpreted and employed as a biographical subject and within public narratives, and asks scholars and public historians to be more reflexive and empathetic in their use of biography.
Considers how Lunsford Lane has been interpreted and employed as a biographical subject and within public narratives, and asks scholars and public historians to be more reflexive and empathetic in their use of biography.
Galon, Tammy Frade, and Adia Mendelson Maoz. "An Autobiography of Her Own—Matalon's The Sound of Our Steps." The Comparatist, vol. 43, 2019, pp. 228–51.
Uses bell hooks' theory regarding autobiography to interpret Ronit Matalon's description of the oppression and discrimination she and her parents' generation of Mizrahis experienced following the mass emigration of Jews in the 1950s from Middle Eastern countries.
Uses bell hooks' theory regarding autobiography to interpret Ronit Matalon's description of the oppression and discrimination she and her parents' generation of Mizrahis experienced following the mass emigration of Jews in the 1950s from Middle Eastern countries.
Ganesan, Kavitha. "Nature in Contemporary Malaysian Life-Writings in English." Journal of Postcolonial Writing, vol. 55, no. 2, 2019, pp. 169–81.
Argues that nature is used to forward a homogenizing identity in Malay nationalist life writing, and to trace and validate diasporic roots in the Chinese and Indian texts.
Argues that nature is used to forward a homogenizing identity in Malay nationalist life writing, and to trace and validate diasporic roots in the Chinese and Indian texts.
Gaur, Savita. "Rózsa G. Hajnóczy's Bengáli tűz ['Fire of Bengal']." Hungarian Cultural Studies, e-Journal of the American Hungarian Educators Association, vol. 12, 2019.
Explores instances of interculturalism and issues connected to the authorship of Bengáli tűz, a Hungarian travel journal written by Rózsa G. Hajnóczy, which records her personal experiences traveling through India with her husband, the famous Orientalist, Gyula Germanus.
Explores instances of interculturalism and issues connected to the authorship of Bengáli tűz, a Hungarian travel journal written by Rózsa G. Hajnóczy, which records her personal experiences traveling through India with her husband, the famous Orientalist, Gyula Germanus.
Gernalzick, Nadja. "Humanimagic Relations: Cabeza de Vaca's Account (1542) and Posthumanism." Developing Transnational American Studies, edited by Nadja Gernalzick and Heike Spickermann, Universitätsverlag Winter, 2019, pp. 69–89.
Applies posthumanism to Cabeza de Vaca's sixteenth-century travel narrative, arguing by means of anthropological theory of relationality and by intermedial example.
Applies posthumanism to Cabeza de Vaca's sixteenth-century travel narrative, arguing by means of anthropological theory of relationality and by intermedial example.
Ghosh, William. "Caribbean Travel and the 'Realistic Shock': Lamming, Naipaul, Condé." Research in African Literatures, vol. 50, no. 2, 2019, pp. 177–97.
Contrasts George Lamming and V. S. Naipaul's use of the trope of "realistic shock" to describe their journeys from the Caribbean to Africa with Maryse Condé's use of the trope in which she articulates a new understanding of the relationship between the Caribbean and Africa.
Contrasts George Lamming and V. S. Naipaul's use of the trope of "realistic shock" to describe their journeys from the Caribbean to Africa with Maryse Condé's use of the trope in which she articulates a new understanding of the relationship between the Caribbean and Africa.
Greenspan, Henry. "The Humanities of Contingency: Interviewing and Teaching Beyond 'Testimony' with Holocaust Survivors." The Oral History Review, vol. 46, no. 2, 2019, pp. 360–79.
Focuses on teaching "beyond testimony": especially through immersion in survivors' recounting as a deliberate, situated, multiply contingent process in which students themselves become, in a survivors' phrase, "participants in a conversation."
Focuses on teaching "beyond testimony": especially through immersion in survivors' recounting as a deliberate, situated, multiply contingent process in which students themselves become, in a survivors' phrase, "participants in a conversation."
Gullette, Margaret Morganroth. "Ramping Up: The Problem That Went Deeper than We Knew." Silver Century, 2019, n.p.
Attempts to deconstruct aging and ageism, in the ordinary passages of life.
Attempts to deconstruct aging and ageism, in the ordinary passages of life.
Gutterman, Lauren Jae. "'Not My Proudest Moment': Guilt, Regret, and the Coming-Out Narrative." The Oral History Review, vol. 46, no. 1, 2019, pp. 48–70.
Draws from interviews with twenty-six lesbian and bisexual women who came out while in heterosexual marriages from the 1970s to the early 2000s to consider how oral history provides queer narrators an opportunity to share negative feelings about coming out.
Draws from interviews with twenty-six lesbian and bisexual women who came out while in heterosexual marriages from the 1970s to the early 2000s to consider how oral history provides queer narrators an opportunity to share negative feelings about coming out.
Hallett, Vicki S. "'I Know Who I Am and What I Represent': Asserting Indigenous Labrador Identity." a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, vol. 34, no. 2, 2019, pp. 271–301.
Uses postcolonial and decolonial lifewriting theories to argue that Doris Saunders, founding editor of Them Days, asserted an Indigenous Labrador identity.
Uses postcolonial and decolonial lifewriting theories to argue that Doris Saunders, founding editor of Them Days, asserted an Indigenous Labrador identity.
Hensey, Clíona. "'Ghostly Encounters': Haunting as Postcolonial Testimony in Zahia Rahmani's Moze and Saliha Telali's Les Enfants des Harkis." Studies in Testimony, vol. 2, no. 1, 2019, n.p.
Considers how the daughters of harkis, Indigenous Algerian men who served as auxiliary soldiers in the French army during the Algerian War of Independence, transform one-dimensional decontextualized forms of bearing witness and receiving testimony into ethically-attuned, historically-situated dialogic speech acts in their postmemory testimonies.
Considers how the daughters of harkis, Indigenous Algerian men who served as auxiliary soldiers in the French army during the Algerian War of Independence, transform one-dimensional decontextualized forms of bearing witness and receiving testimony into ethically-attuned, historically-situated dialogic speech acts in their postmemory testimonies.
Herbe, Sarah, and Julia Novak. "Life Writing Research Past and Present: Interview with Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson." European Journal of Life Writing, vol. 8, 2019, pp. R8–R20.
Deals with the differences between autobiographical and biographical modes, recent theoretical interventions in the field of lifewriting studies, and other topical issues.
Deals with the differences between autobiographical and biographical modes, recent theoretical interventions in the field of lifewriting studies, and other topical issues.
Ho, Yi Kai. "Supplementary Studies on the Diary of Liu Kang." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 13, 2019, pp. 107–21.
Draws upon information from eighteen newly recovered volumes of the unpublished diaries of Liu Kang, a Nanyang pioneer painter, to achieve a better understanding of his life and work and discuss the documentary value of his diaries.
Draws upon information from eighteen newly recovered volumes of the unpublished diaries of Liu Kang, a Nanyang pioneer painter, to achieve a better understanding of his life and work and discuss the documentary value of his diaries.
Hobbs, Katherine. "Sensational Autobiography: Female Authorship, Marriage, and Melodramatic Self-Representation in 1850s England." ELH, vol. 86, no. 3, 2019, pp. 699–728.
Argues that a distinctive form of melodramatic autobiographical writing developed as women writers combined personal narrative, political commentary, and melodramatic devices to address marital inequalities in mid-nineteenth-century England.
Argues that a distinctive form of melodramatic autobiographical writing developed as women writers combined personal narrative, political commentary, and melodramatic devices to address marital inequalities in mid-nineteenth-century England.
Hodgkinson, Dan. "Nationalists with no Nation: Oral history, ZANU(PF) and the Meanings of Rhodesian Student Activism in Zimbabwe." Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute, vol. 89, Supplement 2019, S40–S64.
Shows how stories of Rhodesian student activism provide space for justifying alternative political possibilities of nationalism.
Shows how stories of Rhodesian student activism provide space for justifying alternative political possibilities of nationalism.
Hornung, Alfred. "Autobiographie als amerikanisches Medium: Ernst Kreneks interkulturelles Leben." Ernst Krenek – nicht nur Komponist, edited by Gernot Gruber, Matthias Schmidt, and Claudia Maurer Zenck, Edition Argus, 2018, pp. 251–63.
Outlines the influence of intercultural relations and African American music on Austrian composer Ernst Krenek's life and work, evident in his turn to the American tradition of the genre.
Outlines the influence of intercultural relations and African American music on Austrian composer Ernst Krenek's life and work, evident in his turn to the American tradition of the genre.
———. "Intercultural, Transcultural, Transnational America and the Obama Family." Perspektiven der Interkulturalität: Forschungsfelder eines umstrittenen Begriffs, edited by Anton Escher and Heike Spickermann, Intercultural Studies vol. 1, Universitätsverlag Winter, 2018, pp. 235–51.
Focuses on Barack Obama's presidency, and his extended family in America, Asia, Africa, and Europe in life writing by Barack Obama, his Luo sister in Kenya, and his Luo brother in China to display the transcultural interrelations which underlie transnational affiliations.
Focuses on Barack Obama's presidency, and his extended family in America, Asia, Africa, and Europe in life writing by Barack Obama, his Luo sister in Kenya, and his Luo brother in China to display the transcultural interrelations which underlie transnational affiliations.
———. "Life Writing and Diversity: Walt Whitman's Song of Myself." Revisiting Walt Whitman on the Occasion of his 200th Birthday, edited by Winfried Herget, Peter Lang, 2019, pp. 111–120.
Argues that Whitman's multi-media representation of the self incorporates all forms of diversity in the biosphere and prefigures the evolution of the popular genre of life writing at the turn of the twenty-first century.
Argues that Whitman's multi-media representation of the self incorporates all forms of diversity in the biosphere and prefigures the evolution of the popular genre of life writing at the turn of the twenty-first century.
Huang, Yanwei. "The Stylistic Changes and the Exploration of Its Connotation in The Sequel of Wu Mi's Diary." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 13, 2019, pp. 93–106.
Examines the consciousness of preserving history, emotional catharsis, and the spiritual struggle of writing in The Sequel of Wu Mi's Diary.
Examines the consciousness of preserving history, emotional catharsis, and the spiritual struggle of writing in The Sequel of Wu Mi's Diary.
Hubbell, Amy L. "Shifting Positions: Amputation, Prosthesis, and the Embodied Memory of Algeria." a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, vol. 34, no. 2, 2019, pp. 211–30.
Addresses how Nicole Guiraud and Danielle Michel-Chich, who each wrote about being maimed in the Battle of Algiers, position themselves in relation to France's colonial history.
Addresses how Nicole Guiraud and Danielle Michel-Chich, who each wrote about being maimed in the Battle of Algiers, position themselves in relation to France's colonial history.
Hummel, Lorna. "Querying and Queering Caregiving: Reading Bodies Othered by Illness via Porochista Khakpour's Sick: A Memoir." Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, vol. 6, no. 1, n.p.
Shows how Khakpour navigates her queer diaspora as an attempted escape from the constructs that define her existence as a disabled-and-suffering woman of color.
Shows how Khakpour navigates her queer diaspora as an attempted escape from the constructs that define her existence as a disabled-and-suffering woman of color.
IABA Student and New Scholar Network. "Looking Back, Looking Forward: Discussing the History and Future of the Field with Craig Howes." IABA SNSN, May 2019.
IABA SNSN interview with Professor Craig Howes.
IABA SNSN interview with Professor Craig Howes.
Jia, Ying. "Experimenting on Biography: The Poetic History and Artistic Reality in Nabokov's Literary Biography." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 12, 2019, pp. 41–52.
Dissects Nabokov's concepts of truth and history in his biographical pursuits.
Dissects Nabokov's concepts of truth and history in his biographical pursuits.
Jiao, Hongle. "'The First and Most Lasting Intelligent Model': On the Influence of Leslie Stephen on Woolf's Creation." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 13, 2019, pp. 153–65.
Evaluates the influence of Leslie Stephen, Virginia Woolf's father, as a scholar, a literary critic, and a biographer on her novels as well as her contributions to Anglo-American modern life writing and lifewriting theories.
Evaluates the influence of Leslie Stephen, Virginia Woolf's father, as a scholar, a literary critic, and a biographer on her novels as well as her contributions to Anglo-American modern life writing and lifewriting theories.
Jones, Elizabeth Jan. "Medicine, Subjectivity, and the Representation of Disability in Una posibilidad entre mil." Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, no. 4, 2019, pp. 411–27.
Interrogates ethical concerns raised by representations of medical care and disability in Cristina Durán and Miguel Ángel Giner Bou's Una posibilidad entre mil, which depicts the early life of their daughter, Laia, who developed a severe cerebral hemorrhage shortly after birth.
Interrogates ethical concerns raised by representations of medical care and disability in Cristina Durán and Miguel Ángel Giner Bou's Una posibilidad entre mil, which depicts the early life of their daughter, Laia, who developed a severe cerebral hemorrhage shortly after birth.
Jordan, Shirley. "Overstepping the Boundaries: Sexual Awakening, Trauma, and Writing in Annie Ernaux's Mémoire de Fille and Christine Angot's Une Semaine de Vacances." L'Esprit Créateur, vol. 59, no. 3, 2019, pp. 5–18.
Argues that the depiction of the authors' earliest experiences of sex in their memoirs challenges the unspeakable taboo that this experience had become for them, and that the very origins of their life writing are tethered to this particular transgression of boundaries.
Argues that the depiction of the authors' earliest experiences of sex in their memoirs challenges the unspeakable taboo that this experience had become for them, and that the very origins of their life writing are tethered to this particular transgression of boundaries.
Karpinski, Eva C. "Aporias of Interculturalism and Translation: The Cosmopolitan Intellectual Meets the Refugee." Perspektiven der Interkulturalität: Forschungsfelder eines umstrittenen Begriffs, ed. Anton Escher and Heike Spickermann, Intercultural Studies vol. 1, Universitätsverlag Winter, 2018, pp. 253–269.
Examines two life writing texts that in different ways configure the challenge of non-appropriative, non-ethnocentric intercultural encounters, Nancy Huston's autobiographical Losing North: Musings on Land, Tongue and Self and Sarah Glidden's comics journalism in Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq.
Examines two life writing texts that in different ways configure the challenge of non-appropriative, non-ethnocentric intercultural encounters, Nancy Huston's autobiographical Losing North: Musings on Land, Tongue and Self and Sarah Glidden's comics journalism in Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq.
———. "Moving the Bones: Multilingual Plasticity in Marlene NourbeSe Philip's Zong!" Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, vol. 45, no. 4, 2018, pp. 639–45.
Reads Philip's long poem through the combined lens of Sylvia Wynter's decolonial thought and Catherine Malabou's concept of plasticity, reflecting on multilingual entanglements that explode and remodel cultural memory of a traumatic event.
Reads Philip's long poem through the combined lens of Sylvia Wynter's decolonial thought and Catherine Malabou's concept of plasticity, reflecting on multilingual entanglements that explode and remodel cultural memory of a traumatic event.
Keown, Bridget E. "'I Think I Was More Pleased to See Her Than Any One 'Cos She's So Fine': Nurses' Friendships, Trauma, and Resiliency During the First World War." Family and Community History, vol. 21, no. 3, 2019, pp. 151–65.
Focuses on the diaries of Nurse Hilda Wells and Eva Smith, whose diaries provide examples of how nurses developed friendships, created spaces of solitude and support, and crafted entertainments for each other to make their war experiences endurable.
Focuses on the diaries of Nurse Hilda Wells and Eva Smith, whose diaries provide examples of how nurses developed friendships, created spaces of solitude and support, and crafted entertainments for each other to make their war experiences endurable.
Knight, Thomas Daniel. "Immigration, Identity, and Genealogy: A Case Study." Genealogy, vol. 3, no. 1, 2019, n.p.
Underscores the limits of post-immigration assimilation by immigrants and their families, and indicates the value of genealogical study for analyzing the immigrant experience.
Underscores the limits of post-immigration assimilation by immigrants and their families, and indicates the value of genealogical study for analyzing the immigrant experience.
Kunow, Rüdiger. "Lives without Memory: Alzheimer's Narratives." Developing Transnational American Studies, edited by Nadja Gernalzick and Heike Spickermann, Universitätsverlag Winter, 2019, pp. 103–12.
Interprets Alzheimer's as a "figure of interruption" and shows its impact in analyses of blog entries, autobiographical projects, and biographies about Alzheimer's patients by close relatives.
Interprets Alzheimer's as a "figure of interruption" and shows its impact in analyses of blog entries, autobiographical projects, and biographies about Alzheimer's patients by close relatives.
Kurvet-Käosaar, Leena. "'A spatially scattered being': Imagining Space in Baltic Exile Life Writing." Trames, vol. 23, no. 2, 2019, pp. 159–72.
Discusses the construction of subjectivity through acts of self-emplacement coming from engagements with different places, landscapes, and trajectories of movement, and attempts to create spaces of belonging and of being at home in the life writing of Bunkše and Laretei.
Discusses the construction of subjectivity through acts of self-emplacement coming from engagements with different places, landscapes, and trajectories of movement, and attempts to create spaces of belonging and of being at home in the life writing of Bunkše and Laretei.
Laborde, Cynthia. "Voix en marge, voix des marginalisés: L'engagement d'Emma en dehors des cases." Nouvelles Études Francophones, vol. 34, no. 1, 2019, pp. 108–21.
Views the blogger Emma's work, whose short comic strips on mental load went global, as journalism and autobiography that blurs the distinction between private and public spheres.
Views the blogger Emma's work, whose short comic strips on mental load went global, as journalism and autobiography that blurs the distinction between private and public spheres.
Leahy, Carla Pascoe. "From the Little Wife to the Supermom? Maternographies of Feminism and Mothering in Australia since 1945." Feminist Studies, vol. 45, no. 1, 2019, pp. 100–28.
Reflects upon maternographies of feminism and mothering in Australia since 1945 from oral history interviews, with a particular focus on how the daily lives and long-term aspirations of Australian mothers have changed.
Reflects upon maternographies of feminism and mothering in Australia since 1945 from oral history interviews, with a particular focus on how the daily lives and long-term aspirations of Australian mothers have changed.
Lewis, Christopher S. "Speculating on Jim Crow Queerness in African American Lesbian and Gay Life Writing." MELUS, vol. 44, no. 2, 2019, pp. 153–72.
Demonstrates that the speculative life writing of Lorde and Delany expand possibilities in terms of gender and sexuality for African Americans during the Jim Crow era and beyond.
Demonstrates that the speculative life writing of Lorde and Delany expand possibilities in terms of gender and sexuality for African Americans during the Jim Crow era and beyond.
Li, He. "The Relationship between the Sage Biography and the Local Chronicles." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 12, 2019, pp. 188–201.
Argues that "sage biography" in ancient China is not equivalent to local chronicles despite their connections and similarities.
Argues that "sage biography" in ancient China is not equivalent to local chronicles despite their connections and similarities.
Li, Junhao, and Dexiang Yin. "Out of the Bamboo Curtain: An Interpretation of the Consciousness of Modern Chinese Women from Daughter of Confucius: A Personal History." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 13, 2019, pp. 79–92.
Understands Daughter of Confucius: A Personal History as a record of the awakening progress of feminine consciousness.
Understands Daughter of Confucius: A Personal History as a record of the awakening progress of feminine consciousness.
Li, Qiting. "'Fictional Truth' and the Construction of the Spiritual Image: A Study of Li Changzhi's Biography." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 13, 2019, pp. 41–53.
Shows how Li Changzhi's biographies illustrate fictional reality in three dimensions, including spiritual traditions, ideal personality, and style.
Shows how Li Changzhi's biographies illustrate fictional reality in three dimensions, including spiritual traditions, ideal personality, and style.
Liu, Haiming. "From Traditional to Transnational: The Chung Family History as a Case Example." Genealogy, vol. 3, no. 3, 2019, n.p.
Uses the Chung family history to discuss filial piety, the inheritance system among sons, Guangdong's competitive social environment that sent hundreds of thousand of immigrants overseas in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and cultural transnationalism.
Uses the Chung family history to discuss filial piety, the inheritance system among sons, Guangdong's competitive social environment that sent hundreds of thousand of immigrants overseas in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and cultural transnationalism.
Liu, Ying, and Zhihui Tang. "Zhou Zuoren and the New Literary Education of Yenching University." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 13, 2019, pp. 208–22.
Outlines Zhou's contributions to the new literature education at Yenching University.
Outlines Zhou's contributions to the new literature education at Yenching University.
Long, Imogen. "City, War and Politicisation in Journal à quatre mains by Benoîte and Flora Groult." Women and the City in French Literature and Culture: Reconfiguring the Feminine in the Urban Environment, edited by Siobhán McIlvanney and Gillian Ni Cheallaigh, U of Wales P, 2019, pp. 224–45.
Examines the coincidence of writerly and ambulatory liberation in this work which charts the evolution of the city of Paris under Occupation and of the Groult sisters' nascent feminism.
Examines the coincidence of writerly and ambulatory liberation in this work which charts the evolution of the city of Paris under Occupation and of the Groult sisters' nascent feminism.
Lovat, Simon. "Whose life is it anyway? Practice-based research into performed fictional-autobiography and the paradox of fiction." Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, vol. 11, no. 1–2, 2019, pp. 61–75.
Proposes a "paradox of fiction" modality, which offers a reading of autobiographical writings that re-evaluates "selfhood" through a discussion of the reception of two one-man plays.
Proposes a "paradox of fiction" modality, which offers a reading of autobiographical writings that re-evaluates "selfhood" through a discussion of the reception of two one-man plays.
Lymn, Jessie. "Migration Histories, National Memory, and Regional Collections." M/C Journal: A Journal of Media and Culture, vol. 22, no. 3, 2019, n.p.
Suggests extensions to the place of "national collections" of Australia's migration histories and considers the role of regional libraries and museums in collecting, preserving, and making accessible the history of migration.
Suggests extensions to the place of "national collections" of Australia's migration histories and considers the role of regional libraries and museums in collecting, preserving, and making accessible the history of migration.
Mack, Katherine, and Jonathan Alexander. "The Ethics of Memoir: Ethos in Uptake." Rhetoric Society Quarterly, vol. 49, no. 1, 2019, pp. 49–70.
Places the memoirist's ethos and memoir's functions within larger social, cultural, and political debates in J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy and Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me.
Places the memoirist's ethos and memoir's functions within larger social, cultural, and political debates in J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy and Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me.
Mahuika, Nēpia. "A Brief History of Whakapapa: Māori Approaches to Genealogy." Genealogy, vol. 3, no. 3, 2019, n.p.
Argues that experimentation with new ways to record genealogy has not altered the underlying oral, ethical, and cultural practices of whakapapa, which have remained integral to how it still lives and operates in Māori communities today.
Argues that experimentation with new ways to record genealogy has not altered the underlying oral, ethical, and cultural practices of whakapapa, which have remained integral to how it still lives and operates in Māori communities today.
Maksimovich, Polina. "'I'm a Beggar in This Frightful New World': Between Disfiguring and Fashioning of Self in Olesha's Fictional Autobiography." AvtobiografiЯ, no. 8, 2019, pp. 297–312.
Suggests that the author, through the fictional character he creates, enters a Nietzschean cycle of regeneration, finding creation in destruction and rebirth in death.
Suggests that the author, through the fictional character he creates, enters a Nietzschean cycle of regeneration, finding creation in destruction and rebirth in death.
Male, Jessie. "Teaching Lucy Grealy's 'Mirrorings' and the Importance of Disability Studies Pedagogy in Composition Classrooms." Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, vol. 6, no. 1, n.p.
Considers how to approach teaching Grealy's memoir and discusses how disabled writers represent the self when they control the telling of their stories.
Considers how to approach teaching Grealy's memoir and discusses how disabled writers represent the self when they control the telling of their stories.
Mao, Xu. "Perfect Autobiography." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 12, 2019, pp. 82–96.
Structures a model for the "well-made" autobiography using a three-act movie theory.
Structures a model for the "well-made" autobiography using a three-act movie theory.
Mari, Laura M. "'Give my Love': Community and Companionship Among Former Ragged School Scholars." Family and Community History, vol. 21, no. 3, 2019, pp. 166–79.
Investigates how former scholars perceived and engaged with their school community through an analysis of a collection of 227 letters from 57 former scholars of Compton Place Ragged School, and reveals the existence of ragged school networks in emigrant communities and friendships forged in the classroom continued and developed overseas.
Investigates how former scholars perceived and engaged with their school community through an analysis of a collection of 227 letters from 57 former scholars of Compton Place Ragged School, and reveals the existence of ragged school networks in emigrant communities and friendships forged in the classroom continued and developed overseas.
Martínez García, Ana Belén. "Construction and collaboration in life-writing projects: Malala Yousafzai's activist 'I.'" Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, vol. 11, no. 1–2, 2019, pp. 201–17.
Explores the storytelling practices employed in Malala Yousafzai's lifewriting texts as examples of collaboration in the co-construction of an activist agenda.
Explores the storytelling practices employed in Malala Yousafzai's lifewriting texts as examples of collaboration in the co-construction of an activist agenda.
———. "Denouncing Human Trafficking in China: North Korean Women's Memoirs as Evidence." State Crime Journal, vol. 8, no. 1, 2019, pp. 59–79.
Situates North Korean women's memoirs within the lifewriting tradition of testimony aimed at raising awareness of the critical absence of human rights for refugees in China.
Situates North Korean women's memoirs within the lifewriting tradition of testimony aimed at raising awareness of the critical absence of human rights for refugees in China.
———. "Empathy for Social Justice: The Case of Malala Yousafzai." JES: Journal of English Studies, vol. 17, 2019, n.p.
Demonstrates the effectiveness of human rights life writing in garnering global support through the appeal to empathy, using Malala Yousafzai's autobiographical texts as an example.
Demonstrates the effectiveness of human rights life writing in garnering global support through the appeal to empathy, using Malala Yousafzai's autobiographical texts as an example.
May, Rachel. "The Pen and the Needle: Intersections of Text and Textile in and as Nonfiction." Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, 2018, n.p.
Considers how to "read" historic sewn work by women, and how to use this knowledge to understand sewn-and-written work by women today.
Considers how to "read" historic sewn work by women, and how to use this knowledge to understand sewn-and-written work by women today.
McNicol, Sarah. "Telling Migrant Women's Life Stories as Comics." Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, vol. 9, no. 4, 2018, 279–92.
Discusses how the British Bangladeshi community in Greater Manchester, UK, particularly women, use digital comics to tell their stories of migration, and offer alternative ways of representing their experiences and exploring their shifting identities.
Discusses how the British Bangladeshi community in Greater Manchester, UK, particularly women, use digital comics to tell their stories of migration, and offer alternative ways of representing their experiences and exploring their shifting identities.
McWilliams, Sally. "Illustrated Connections: Family, Memories, and Imagination in The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam." Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, vol. 18, no. 1, 2019, pp. 63–93.
Shows that Ann Marie Fleming, in her illustrated memoir about her great-grandfather, invokes a feminist interpretation of Chinese diasporic history that reconfigures time, space, and bodies in the production of memories for the historical archive.
Shows that Ann Marie Fleming, in her illustrated memoir about her great-grandfather, invokes a feminist interpretation of Chinese diasporic history that reconfigures time, space, and bodies in the production of memories for the historical archive.
———. "Precarious Memories and Affective Relationships in Thi Bui's The Best We Could Do." Journal of Asian American Studies, vol. 22, no. 3, 2019, pp. 315–48.
Shows that Thi Bui's illustrated memoir intertwines cotemporal representations of trauma and the performativity of memory, through visual technologies of maps and photographs, to destabilize rhetorics and realities of US exceptionalism and assimilation.
Shows that Thi Bui's illustrated memoir intertwines cotemporal representations of trauma and the performativity of memory, through visual technologies of maps and photographs, to destabilize rhetorics and realities of US exceptionalism and assimilation.
Meekings, Sam. "Writing through Loss: The Rise of Grief Narratives through the Lens of Linville's Self-complexity Theory." Life Writing, vol. 16, no. 3, 2019, pp. 413–27.
Examines recent grief memoirs and contemporary autofiction dealing with bereavement in order to analyze how such works renegotiate the self's aspects.
Examines recent grief memoirs and contemporary autofiction dealing with bereavement in order to analyze how such works renegotiate the self's aspects.
Melton, Elizabeth M. "Hometown Ethnography: Race, Place, and Reflexivity." The Oral History Review, vol. 46, no. 2, 2019, pp. 300–23.
Defines "hometown ethnography" as a type of ethnography that de-centers the researcher, redirecting attention to the complex relationships between a hometown, its current residents, and their social practices, and analyzes the importance of place, race, and researcher positionality in a study of public school desegregation in East Texas.
Defines "hometown ethnography" as a type of ethnography that de-centers the researcher, redirecting attention to the complex relationships between a hometown, its current residents, and their social practices, and analyzes the importance of place, race, and researcher positionality in a study of public school desegregation in East Texas.
Menyhért, Anna. "Memoir as Motherly Word: Processing Trauma in Biographies of Attila József by Judit Szántó, Flóra Kozmutza and Mártó Vágó." Life Writing, vol. 16, no. 3, 2019, pp. 311–27.
Analyzes biographical memoirs written about Attila József by three women connected to him to offers new insights for psychoanalytically oriented Attila József-criticism.
Analyzes biographical memoirs written about Attila József by three women connected to him to offers new insights for psychoanalytically oriented Attila József-criticism.
Messina, Henna Marian. "Bodily Matters: Creative Agency in Frances Burney's Life Writing." Women's Writing, vol. 26, no. 4, 2019, pp. 440–55.
Argues that Burney uses her life writing to enact an active and creative resistance against a hostile world by sharing her experiences of pain with her reader, creating a generative agency from the material inscription of feminine embodiment.
Argues that Burney uses her life writing to enact an active and creative resistance against a hostile world by sharing her experiences of pain with her reader, creating a generative agency from the material inscription of feminine embodiment.
Metcalfe, Amy Scott. "Witnessing Indigenous Dispossession and Academic Arboricide: Visual Auto-Ethnography as Anti-Colonial Didactic." Visual Arts Research, vol. 45, no. 2, 2019, pp. 80–90.
Uses auto-ethnographic photography to evoke the necessity of academic answerability by framing the act of deforestation within an academic boundary as that of land theft and ecological conquest with political, cultural, and epistemic implications.
Uses auto-ethnographic photography to evoke the necessity of academic answerability by framing the act of deforestation within an academic boundary as that of land theft and ecological conquest with political, cultural, and epistemic implications.
Michael, Olga. "Reading Phoebe Gloeckner's A Child's Life and Other Stories at the Time of #MeToo." Life Writing, vol. 16, no. 3, 2019, pp. 345–67.
Argues that Gloeckner becomes an active consumer of past artworks by performing her feminist reading and reinterpretation of them in her graphic memoir.
Argues that Gloeckner becomes an active consumer of past artworks by performing her feminist reading and reinterpretation of them in her graphic memoir.
Mildorf, Jarmila. "Autobiography, the Literary, and the Everyday in Paul Auster's Report from the Interior." Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas, vol. 17, no. 1, 2019, pp. 125–40.
Suggests that autobiographical texts can become sites of withdrawal, where the personal is offered on the surface of the text but also immediately recedes into the background.
Suggests that autobiographical texts can become sites of withdrawal, where the personal is offered on the surface of the text but also immediately recedes into the background.
Miletic, Philip. "Playing a Life in Nina Freeman's Automedia Game, Cibele." Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 2, 2019, pp. 311–34.
Establishes a framework for studying automedia games through Nina Freeman's Cibele, and presents the embodied, material, affective, and relational play of video games to challenge gamer culture's misogyny.
Establishes a framework for studying automedia games through Nina Freeman's Cibele, and presents the embodied, material, affective, and relational play of video games to challenge gamer culture's misogyny.
Miller, Nancy K. "Goodbye to All That." College Literature, vol. 46, no. 1, 2019, pp. 243–53.
Reflects upon experiments in theory, writing, drawing, and teaching over a career.
Reflects upon experiments in theory, writing, drawing, and teaching over a career.
Moriarty, Jess, and Ross Adamson. "'Storying the self': Autobiography as pedagogy in undergraduate creative writing teaching." Journal of Writing in Creative Practice, vol. 11, no. 1–2, 2019, pp. 91–107.
Shares personal stories to reflect on using autoethnography pedagogically in undergraduate creative writing education.
Shares personal stories to reflect on using autoethnography pedagogically in undergraduate creative writing education.
Mu, Jiangwei. "Into the Complex Soul: Features of Su Manshu Biography." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 12, 2019, pp. 97–110.
Compares the complexity of the poetic subject in over thirty Su Manshu biographies.
Compares the complexity of the poetic subject in over thirty Su Manshu biographies.
Napoli, Philip F., Thomas Brinson, Neil Kenny, and Joan Furey. "Oral History, Moral Injury, and Vietnam Veterans." The Oral History Review, vol. 46, no. 1, 2019, pp. 71–103.
Finds moral injury to be a valuable interpretive tool for oral historians and interviewees that must be treated with some degree of caution.
Finds moral injury to be a valuable interpretive tool for oral historians and interviewees that must be treated with some degree of caution.
Naranch, Laurie E. "The Narratable Self: Adriana Cavarero with Sojourner Truth." Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, vol. 34, no. 3, 2019, pp. 424–40.
Brings Cavarero's concept of the narratable self and concern about exposure into conversation with the nineteenth-century abolitionist and women's rights advocate Sojourner Truth.
Brings Cavarero's concept of the narratable self and concern about exposure into conversation with the nineteenth-century abolitionist and women's rights advocate Sojourner Truth.
Narny, Yenny, Yudhi Andoni, Herwandi Herwandi, and Annie Pohlman. "Between Sakit and Schizophrenia in West Sumatra, Indonesia." Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, vol. 34, no. 3, November 2019, pp. 491–520.
Explores one woman's life history of mental illness in West Sumatra, Indonesia, and the shifting explanatory narratives she and her family used over time to understand and manage this illness, highlighting tensions between local understandings and methods of care and transnational psychiatric framings of mental illness.
Explores one woman's life history of mental illness in West Sumatra, Indonesia, and the shifting explanatory narratives she and her family used over time to understand and manage this illness, highlighting tensions between local understandings and methods of care and transnational psychiatric framings of mental illness.
Ndlovu, Isaac. "Inside Out: Gender, Individualism, and Representations of the Contemporary South African Prison." Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 54, no. 3, 2019, pp. 399–412.
Demonstrates political and community engagement in Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela's A Human Being Died that Night: A Story of Forgiveness and Angela Makholwa's Red Ink, respectively, auto/biographical and fictional representations of the contemporary South African prison.
Demonstrates political and community engagement in Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela's A Human Being Died that Night: A Story of Forgiveness and Angela Makholwa's Red Ink, respectively, auto/biographical and fictional representations of the contemporary South African prison.
Neil, Bronwen. "Manipulating the Message: Letters of Gelasius and Nicholas I on Papal Authority." The Journal of Epistolary Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, 2019, 38–47.
Examines political rhetoric in ecclesiastical contexts in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages for the way these letters live in canon law, measuring the historical impact of these letters as a form of soft diplomacy.
Examines political rhetoric in ecclesiastical contexts in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages for the way these letters live in canon law, measuring the historical impact of these letters as a form of soft diplomacy.
Ng, Audrey. "Written by the Body: Evolutions of Embodiment in Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior and I Love a Broad Margin to My Life." MELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, vol. 44, no. 3, 2019, pp. 155–74.
Argues that Kingston's intersubjective remembering and community building through her autobiographical narratives, which constantly position the body at the intersection of public and personal identities, aid her peace project.
Argues that Kingston's intersubjective remembering and community building through her autobiographical narratives, which constantly position the body at the intersection of public and personal identities, aid her peace project.
Novotny, Maria, and John T. Gagnon. "Research as Care: A Shared Ownership Approach to Rhetorical Research in Trauma Communities." Reflections, vol. 18, no. 1, 2018, pp. 71–101.
Draws on research experience and feminist and indigenous approaches to outline a proposed methodological toolkit for trauma-related research to reduce participant risk.
Draws on research experience and feminist and indigenous approaches to outline a proposed methodological toolkit for trauma-related research to reduce participant risk.
O'Brien, Ellen. "Sites of Servant Memory in the English Country House: Frederick Gorst and the Gladstone Vase." Life Writing, vol. 16, no. 3, 2019, pp. 369–84.
Considers hints of deliberate elision, corrupt group memory, and nostalgia for empire and the country house in Gorst's description of the Gladstone Vase.
Considers hints of deliberate elision, corrupt group memory, and nostalgia for empire and the country house in Gorst's description of the Gladstone Vase.
O'Keeffe, Brigid. "The Woman Always Pays: The Lives of Ivy Litvinov." Slavonic and East European Review, vol. 97, no. 3, 2019, pp. 501–28.
Examines the biography of Ivy Litvinov, the British-born wife of the prominent Old Bolshevik Maksim Litvinov, using an extensive archive, and suggests historians of the USSR take the lives of so-called Kremlin wives and children more seriously.
Examines the biography of Ivy Litvinov, the British-born wife of the prominent Old Bolshevik Maksim Litvinov, using an extensive archive, and suggests historians of the USSR take the lives of so-called Kremlin wives and children more seriously.
Pappalardo, Mary. "Writing from the New Colony: Place, Subjectivity, and Textual Production in Guantánamo Diary." Research in African Literatures, vol. 50, no. 1, 2019, pp. 20–35.
Shows how Mohamedou Ould Slahi's 2015 Guantánamo Diary illustrates the global circuits of neoimperialism, and ultimately demands a reconsideration of new modes of colonial power and the levels of complicity global audiences play in the proliferation of that power.
Shows how Mohamedou Ould Slahi's 2015 Guantánamo Diary illustrates the global circuits of neoimperialism, and ultimately demands a reconsideration of new modes of colonial power and the levels of complicity global audiences play in the proliferation of that power.
Pélage, Agnès. "Our 'Baby' on YouTube: The Gendered Life Stories of the Unborn." European Journal of Life Writing, vol. 8, 2019, pp. 69–90.
Analyzes YouTube posts of fifth-month ultrasound imagery to understand the social use of these posts for expectant parents and their implications for the unborn.
Analyzes YouTube posts of fifth-month ultrasound imagery to understand the social use of these posts for expectant parents and their implications for the unborn.
Peysson-Zeiss, Agnès. "Dans la Marge de la BD: Génocide et Resilience." Nouvelles Études Francophones, vol. 34, no. 1, 2019, pp. 68–80.
Analyzes modalities of violence and forms of testimony authors of graphic memoir use to remember and engage the traces of violence.
Analyzes modalities of violence and forms of testimony authors of graphic memoir use to remember and engage the traces of violence.
Phelan, James. "Irony, Ethics, and Lyric Narrative in Miriam Engelberg's Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person." The Oxford Handbook of Comic Book Studies, edited by Frederick Luis Aldama, Oxford UP, 2019.
Examines Engelberg's uses of irony and her deployment of a lyric-narrative progression in order to accomplish her purposes of depicting the grim realities of her experience, finding therapeutic value in her comics, and providing an account that can be useful to others.
Examines Engelberg's uses of irony and her deployment of a lyric-narrative progression in order to accomplish her purposes of depicting the grim realities of her experience, finding therapeutic value in her comics, and providing an account that can be useful to others.
Price, Kim. "Time to Write: Convict Petitions in the 19th Century." Family and Community History, vol. 22, no. 1, 2019, pp. 22–39.
Discusses convict petitions as a record of different petitioner experiences, motivations, and objectives to provide a unique window into convict lives in the nineteenth century.
Discusses convict petitions as a record of different petitioner experiences, motivations, and objectives to provide a unique window into convict lives in the nineteenth century.
Probes, Christine McCall. "'I have vu tout ce qu'il y avait à voir': The Incorporation of Other Languages into the Memoirs and Letters of Two Early Modern Princesses." L'Esprit Créateur, vol. 59, no. 4, 2019, pp. 26–39.
Explores how and why Sophie de Hanovre and her niece Elisabeth Charlotte incorporate other languages in memoirs and letters, showing that their translingualism contributes cultural dimensions to their texts, while strengthening the bonds between recipients.
Explores how and why Sophie de Hanovre and her niece Elisabeth Charlotte incorporate other languages in memoirs and letters, showing that their translingualism contributes cultural dimensions to their texts, while strengthening the bonds between recipients.
Punzalan, Bernard T. "Chamorro Roots Genealogy Project: Technological Milestones." Genealogy, vol. 3, no. 3, 2019, n.p.
Discusses the history of the Chamorro Roots Genealogy Project, and how technological tools allow for networking, communcication, and collaboration on the project.
Discusses the history of the Chamorro Roots Genealogy Project, and how technological tools allow for networking, communcication, and collaboration on the project.
Quinn, Katrina. "Narratologies of Autodiegetic Undercover Reportage: Albert Deane Richardson's The Secret Service." Journal of Narrative Theory, vol. 49, no. 1, 2019, pp. 1–26.
Highlights the unique relationships of narrative journalism to multiple reader contingents and the use of an oral narrative to secure reporting space for undercover reporters.
Highlights the unique relationships of narrative journalism to multiple reader contingents and the use of an oral narrative to secure reporting space for undercover reporters.
Richter, Antje. "Literary Criticism in the Epistolary Mode." The Journal of Epistolary Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, 2019, pp. 5–37.
Proposes that writers throughout history and across cultures were highly aware of the generic possibilities of the epistolary mode for the writing of literary criticism, and purposely employed it in a variety of ways, spanning the range from intimate family letter to openly fictional, published letter.
Proposes that writers throughout history and across cultures were highly aware of the generic possibilities of the epistolary mode for the writing of literary criticism, and purposely employed it in a variety of ways, spanning the range from intimate family letter to openly fictional, published letter.
Rifkind, Candida. "Norman Bethune and the Contested Space of Canadian Public Memory." Contested Spaces, Counter-Narratives, and Culture from Below in Canada and Québec, edited by Roxanne Rimstead and Domenico A. Beneventi, U of Toronto P, 2019, pp. 212–40.
Engages the bourgeois state's whitewashing of Norman Bethune's revolutionary ideology, using Adrienne Clarkson's recent biography of Bethune as a starting point.
Engages the bourgeois state's whitewashing of Norman Bethune's revolutionary ideology, using Adrienne Clarkson's recent biography of Bethune as a starting point.
Robertson, Rachel, and Helena Kadmos. "Crossing the Shadow Line: Collaborative Creative Writing about Grief." New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing, vol. 17, no. 2, 2019, pp. 214–25.
Explores the process and outcome of a collaborative life writing project on a parent's death.
Explores the process and outcome of a collaborative life writing project on a parent's death.
Rogers, Helen, and Emily Cuming. "Revealing Fragments: Close and Distant Reading of Working-Class Autobiography." Family & Community History, vol. 21, no. 3, 2019, pp. 180–201.
Explores the process of writing and the emotional framework for memoirs penned by British working-class people with a focus on the Burnett Archive of Working Class Autobiography, one of the largest collections of life writing "from below."
Explores the process of writing and the emotional framework for memoirs penned by British working-class people with a focus on the Burnett Archive of Working Class Autobiography, one of the largest collections of life writing "from below."
Rüggemeier, Anne, and Maren Scheurer. "Autobiography and|as Narcissism? Psychoanalysis and Self-Reflexive Life-Writing in Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's A Dialogue on Love and Alison Bechdel's Are You My Mother?" a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, vol. 34, no. 2, 2019, pp. 167–95.
Posits that autobiographies can go beyond self-involvement and highlight the autobiographer's search for meaning in dialogue with others.
Posits that autobiographies can go beyond self-involvement and highlight the autobiographer's search for meaning in dialogue with others.
Ryden, Wendy. "Liminally True: Creative Nonfiction as Transformative Thirdspace." Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, vol. 6, no. 1, n.p.
Argues that the liminality of creative nonfiction is powerfully productive in terms of genre as well as method and pedagogy for the writing classroom.
Argues that the liminality of creative nonfiction is powerfully productive in terms of genre as well as method and pedagogy for the writing classroom.
Saber, Yomna. "Blurring the Contours of Memory in June Jordan's Soldier: A Poet's Childhood." a/b: Auto/Biography Studies, vol. 34, no. 2, 2019, 231–55.
Examines how June Jordan views her parents in Soldier: A Poet's Childhood.
Examines how June Jordan views her parents in Soldier: A Poet's Childhood.
Sadlier, Aoife. "Evoking the Female 'Asexual': Narrating the Silenced Self." Life Writing, vol. 16, no. 3, 2019, pp. 439–61.
Invokes the lost voice of the female asexual by weaving queer and feminist theories of sexuality into a self-narrative exploring a journey from asexuality to autoeroticism.
Invokes the lost voice of the female asexual by weaving queer and feminist theories of sexuality into a self-narrative exploring a journey from asexuality to autoeroticism.
Sala, Michael. "The Memoirist against History: Nabokov's Speak, Memory as the (Re) negotiation of a Literary Form at the Intersection of Personal Experience and Historical Narrative." European Journal of Life Writing, vol. 8, 2019, pp. 28–46.
Reveals that Nabokov's discussion of artifice in the autobiographical project stakes out a claim for the literary autobiographical writer in the face of historical narrative.
Reveals that Nabokov's discussion of artifice in the autobiographical project stakes out a claim for the literary autobiographical writer in the face of historical narrative.
Schell, John Logan. "This Is Who I Am: Hybridity and Materiality in Comics Memoir." The Oxford Handbook of Comic Book Studies, edited by Frederick Luis Aldama, Oxford UP, 2019.
Explores how the medium of comics, with its hybridity and materiality, reveals the stylized fictionality of autobiography connected to personal experience, while superseding realism.
Explores how the medium of comics, with its hybridity and materiality, reveals the stylized fictionality of autobiography connected to personal experience, while superseding realism.
Schler, Lynn. "Space as Testimony: Collecting Oral Histories Among Nigerian Seamen." The Oral History Review, vol. 46, no. 2, 2019, pp. 324–40.
Draws upon fieldwork conducted in Lagos, Nigeria, among former seamen of the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL), and argues that we need to understand better how the spaces in which we conduct interviews both shape the knowledge that emerges from the interview and how we interpret it.
Draws upon fieldwork conducted in Lagos, Nigeria, among former seamen of the Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL), and argues that we need to understand better how the spaces in which we conduct interviews both shape the knowledge that emerges from the interview and how we interpret it.
Schneider, Gary. "Propaganda, Patriotism, and News: Printing Discovered and Intercepted Letters in England, 1571–1600." The Journal of Epistolary Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, 2019, pp. 48–66.
Demonstrates that intercepted and discovered letters printed during the reign of Elizabeth I could be used as effective tools to shape cultural perceptions, but could also be cast as persuasive written testimony, as legal proof, and as documentary authentication.
Demonstrates that intercepted and discovered letters printed during the reign of Elizabeth I could be used as effective tools to shape cultural perceptions, but could also be cast as persuasive written testimony, as legal proof, and as documentary authentication.
Seethaler, Ina. "Empowering the Passive Muse: A Call for a Feminist Approach to Writing Biographies on Historical Women." Journal of Feminist Scholarship, vol. 15, 2018, pp. 37–48.
Analyzes two popular biographies on historical women to interrogate how a focus on gender has shaped the genre.
Analyzes two popular biographies on historical women to interrogate how a focus on gender has shaped the genre.
Serraf, Lola. "Holocaust Impiety in 21st Century Graphic Novels: Younger Generations 'No Longer Obliged to Perpetuate Sorrow.'" Genealogy, vol. 3, no. 4, 2019, n.p.
Analyzes graphic novels Deuxième génération: Ce que je n'ai pas dit à mon père by Michel Kichka and Nous n'irons pas à Auschwitz by Jérémie Dres to examine new aspects of trauma they present: the reluctance to deal with one's past, the struggle to bear the weight of the "sacred" memory of Auschwitz, and in some cases the lack of interest of the youth in the Shoah.
Analyzes graphic novels Deuxième génération: Ce que je n'ai pas dit à mon père by Michel Kichka and Nous n'irons pas à Auschwitz by Jérémie Dres to examine new aspects of trauma they present: the reluctance to deal with one's past, the struggle to bear the weight of the "sacred" memory of Auschwitz, and in some cases the lack of interest of the youth in the Shoah.
Shell-Weiss, Melanie. "Good Intentions: Grappling with Legacies of Conflict and Distrust Surrounding a Native American Oral History Project One Generation Later." The Oral History Review, vol. 46, no. 1, 2019, pp. 104–33.
Suggests that best practices for community engagement and ethics include intercultural understanding, intersubjective awareness, embracing conflict, acknowledging institutional obligations, and recognizing the limits of one's decision-making powers.
Suggests that best practices for community engagement and ethics include intercultural understanding, intersubjective awareness, embracing conflict, acknowledging institutional obligations, and recognizing the limits of one's decision-making powers.
Shoma, Sen. "The Village and the City: Dalit Feminism in the Autobiographies of Baby Kamble and Urmila Pawar." The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 54, no. 1, 2019, pp. 38–51.
Shows how the autobiographies of Baby Kamble and Urmila Pawar, though different, both vividly depict patriarchal oppression from outside the caste as well as within it.
Shows how the autobiographies of Baby Kamble and Urmila Pawar, though different, both vividly depict patriarchal oppression from outside the caste as well as within it.
Srikanth, Siddharth. "Fictionality and Autofiction." Style, vol. 53, no. 3, 2019, pp. 344–63.
Examines two autofictional texts that attempt to accurately represent the self through extensive use of both fictive and nonfictive discourse.
Examines two autofictional texts that attempt to accurately represent the self through extensive use of both fictive and nonfictive discourse.
Smart, Patricia. "Growing up Poor and Female in Montréal, 1930–1960: Women's Autobiographies as Counter-narratives." Contested Spaces, Counter-Narratives, and Culture from Below in Canada and Québec, edited by Roxanne Rimstead and Domenico A. Beneventi, U of Toronto P, 2019, pp. 292–307.
Examines how women from Québec use the language of self to situate memories of lived space, the reproduction of social habitus in the family, affective and material spaces, and gendered experiences of poverty, and sojourns within the poorer quartiers of Montréal.
Examines how women from Québec use the language of self to situate memories of lived space, the reproduction of social habitus in the family, affective and material spaces, and gendered experiences of poverty, and sojourns within the poorer quartiers of Montréal.
Smith, Philip. "Drawing Vladek, Staging Shylock: Art Spiegelman's Maus in American Holocaust Discourse." Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, vol. 10, no. 2, 2019, pp. 197–209.
Explores parallels between Vladek in Art Spiegelman's Maus and Shylock from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, to show how Maus generates a counter-discourse to the paradigmatic hero-saint representation of the Holocaust survivor.
Explores parallels between Vladek in Art Spiegelman's Maus and Shylock from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, to show how Maus generates a counter-discourse to the paradigmatic hero-saint representation of the Holocaust survivor.
Smith, Sidonie, and Julia Watson. "Auto/biographics and Graphic Histories Made for the Classroom, from Logicomix to Abina and the Important Men." The Oxford Handbook of Comic Book Studies, edited by Frederick Luis Aldama, Oxford UP, 2019.
Raises questions about how the grammar of the comics form, the aesthetics of its visual/textual interface, and the ethics of identification and empathy are affected when historical figures are reanimated and their life narratives remediated for the classroom.
Raises questions about how the grammar of the comics form, the aesthetics of its visual/textual interface, and the ethics of identification and empathy are affected when historical figures are reanimated and their life narratives remediated for the classroom.
———. "An Introduction to the Work of Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 13, 2019, pp. 1–12.
Surveys the authors' collaborative and individual contributions to the field of life writing.
Surveys the authors' collaborative and individual contributions to the field of life writing.
———. "Metalepsis in Autobiographical Narrative." European Journal of Life Writing, vol. 8, 2019, pp. 1–27.
Argues that metalepsis, by shifting across temporal and spatial planes that confuse diegetic and metadiegetic levels, operates productively in autobiographical narrative.
Argues that metalepsis, by shifting across temporal and spatial planes that confuse diegetic and metadiegetic levels, operates productively in autobiographical narrative.
Sohini, Kay. "The Graphic Memoir as a Transitional Object: Narrativizing the Self in Alison Bechdel's Are You My Mother?" Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, 2019, n.p.
Argues that Bechdel's Are You My Mother? employs the hybrid genre of the comic-space to analyze and process her complex sense of self and the traumas that mediate it.
Argues that Bechdel's Are You My Mother? employs the hybrid genre of the comic-space to analyze and process her complex sense of self and the traumas that mediate it.
Soriano, Jen. "Multiplicity from the Margins: The Expansive Truth of Intersectional Form." Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, 2018, n.p.
Analyzes intersectional form in Lauret Savoy's Trace, Kazim Ali's Bright Felon, and Lily Hoang's A Bestiary, authors from marginalized communities who wrestle against silencing to tell what they feel must be told.
Analyzes intersectional form in Lauret Savoy's Trace, Kazim Ali's Bright Felon, and Lily Hoang's A Bestiary, authors from marginalized communities who wrestle against silencing to tell what they feel must be told.
Spallacci, Amanda. "Rape Testimony in Contemporary Memoir." Studies in Testimony, vol. 2, no. 1, 2019, n.p.
Demonstrates that memoirs about rape unsettle and dismantle hegemonic narratives, as well as create alternative ways of talking about and understanding testimonies about rape.
Demonstrates that memoirs about rape unsettle and dismantle hegemonic narratives, as well as create alternative ways of talking about and understanding testimonies about rape.
Sperrazza, Whitney. "Intimate Correspondence: Negotiating the Materials of Female Friendship in Margaret Cavendish's Sociable Letters." Women's Writing, vol. 26, no. 4, 2019, pp. 456–72.
Argues that Cavendish uses Sociable Letters, and the female friendship within its pages, to intervene in epistolary traditions and negotiate alternatives for the conventional markers of intimacy between correspondents.
Argues that Cavendish uses Sociable Letters, and the female friendship within its pages, to intervene in epistolary traditions and negotiate alternatives for the conventional markers of intimacy between correspondents.
Stewart, Manley. "Hawaiian Jungle Writing: Where There is the Most Life." Life Writing, vol. 16, no. 3, 2019, pp. 463–75.
Explores life writing from the Hawaiian jungle through connected personal reflections, imaginative flights, and academic commentary.
Explores life writing from the Hawaiian jungle through connected personal reflections, imaginative flights, and academic commentary.
Šūpulis, Edmunds. "A community without history? A life story approach to Romany memory and ethnicity." Romani Studies, vol. 29, no. 1, 2019, pp. 27–50.
Explores how the experience of living under different political regimes is conveyed in communicative memory through the collected life stories of Roma people.
Explores how the experience of living under different political regimes is conveyed in communicative memory through the collected life stories of Roma people.
Taavetti, Riikka. "Discovered Queer Desires: Rereading Same-Sex Sexuality from Finnish and Estonian Life Stories of the 1990s." Journal of the History of Sexuality, vol. 28, no. 2, 2019, pp. 205–34.
Suggests that the way selected writers recall their own and others' same-sex desires reveals the importance of queer desires in constructing their sexual life stories in the 1990s.
Suggests that the way selected writers recall their own and others' same-sex desires reveals the importance of queer desires in constructing their sexual life stories in the 1990s.
Takayoshi, Pamela. "Finding Ada: Socially Situated Historical Methods and Nineteenth Century Feminist Activism." Rhetoric Review, vol. 38, no. 2, 2019, pp. 133–45.
Layers bureaucratic records, genealogical tracing, intertextual tracing, and field observations onto the archival material to develop a socially situated understanding of Ada Metcalf's 1876 memoir, Lunatic Asylums and How I Became an Inmate of One.
Layers bureaucratic records, genealogical tracing, intertextual tracing, and field observations onto the archival material to develop a socially situated understanding of Ada Metcalf's 1876 memoir, Lunatic Asylums and How I Became an Inmate of One.
Tang, Xiumin. "The Biographer's Art: Interview with Richard Holmes." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 12, 2019, pp. 1–14.
Tang interviews Richard Holmes, a professor of biographical studies known in China for his biographies of Romanticists and scientists and his theoretical works on biography.
Tang interviews Richard Holmes, a professor of biographical studies known in China for his biographies of Romanticists and scientists and his theoretical works on biography.
Tromly, Lucas. "Chickens eating duck: animal personhood and multicultural critique in Gerry Alanguilan's graphic novel Elmer." Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, vol. 10, no. 4, 2019, pp. 459–75.
Explores the figuration of animal personhood in Gerry Alanguilan's graphic novel Elmer, where chickens become as intelligent as humans, highlighting his problematic assumption of an underlying sameness between chickens and humans.
Explores the figuration of animal personhood in Gerry Alanguilan's graphic novel Elmer, where chickens become as intelligent as humans, highlighting his problematic assumption of an underlying sameness between chickens and humans.
Urrieta, Luis, Jr. "Indigenous Reflections on Identity, Trauma, and Healing: Navigating Belonging and Power." Genealogy, vol. 3, no. 2, 2019, n.p.
Explores intergenerational "rememberings" of Indigenous identity, trauma, and healing based on personal, family, and community memory.
Explores intergenerational "rememberings" of Indigenous identity, trauma, and healing based on personal, family, and community memory.
Valeri, Laura. "Tell Tale Interviews: Lessons in True-Life Trauma Narratives Gleaned from Jennifer Fox's The Tale." Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, vol. 6, no. 1, n.p.
Argues that The Tale, "a fictional" or dramatized memoir, is a study of perception and identity, a survivor's nearly endless talent for self-deception, and the webs of complicity that can easily spin between prey, predator, and everyone in between.
Argues that The Tale, "a fictional" or dramatized memoir, is a study of perception and identity, a survivor's nearly endless talent for self-deception, and the webs of complicity that can easily spin between prey, predator, and everyone in between.
Vickers, Emma L. "Unexpected Trauma in Oral Interviewing." The Oral History Review, vol. 46, no. 1, 2019, pp. 134–41.
Argues that oral history practitioners might usefully mobilize some of the methodological functionality of transactional analysis to address situations in which interviewees express profound and unexpected trauma.
Argues that oral history practitioners might usefully mobilize some of the methodological functionality of transactional analysis to address situations in which interviewees express profound and unexpected trauma.
Wagner, Vivian. "Crafting Digression: Interactivity and Gamification in Creative Nonfiction." Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, 2018, n.p.
Discusses the relationship between digression and interactivity in creative nonfiction.
Discusses the relationship between digression and interactivity in creative nonfiction.
Wang, Buxin. "The Life Narrative Examined from the Perspective of Space Theory: The Case of Fang Wei's A Biography of Wang Xiaobo." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 12, 2019, pp. 136–48.
Restores the biographer's mode of writing in different cultural spaces to improve our understanding of Wang Xiaobo.
Restores the biographer's mode of writing in different cultural spaces to improve our understanding of Wang Xiaobo.
Watson, Julia. Review of Life? or Theatre? (Leben? oder Theater?) by Charlotte Salomon. Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, vol. 42, no. 2, 2019, pp. 438–51.
Outlines divisions in a new era of Salomon studies initiated by the publication of the first complete, and the largest-scale, edition of Salomon's work to date.
Outlines divisions in a new era of Salomon studies initiated by the publication of the first complete, and the largest-scale, edition of Salomon's work to date.
———. "Manthia Diawara's Strategic Ruminations on Migration and the Conundrums of Cinematic Autoethnography." Special issue of Cinergie–Il cinema e le alter arti, edited by Alice Cati and Mariagiulia Grassilli, no. 16, 2019, pp. 13–25.
In Rouch in Reverse (1995) and An Opera of the World (2017), filmmaker, theorist, and autobiographer Manthia Diawara's self-representation as a mobile subject both authorizes him and interrogates conventional representations of Africans and other migrants by creating an innovatively counter-ethnographic mode of film.
In Rouch in Reverse (1995) and An Opera of the World (2017), filmmaker, theorist, and autobiographer Manthia Diawara's self-representation as a mobile subject both authorizes him and interrogates conventional representations of Africans and other migrants by creating an innovatively counter-ethnographic mode of film.
Watt, Helen. "'My Freind who Writes for Me': Scribes and Scribal Relationships in the Letters of Seamen, 1793–1815." Family and Community History, vol. 22, no. 1, 2019, pp. 40–58.
Considers the use of scribes and the relationship between writer and scribe, and the writer's family and his scribe in the letters of British Royal Navy servicemen below the rank of commissioned officer during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1793–1815.
Considers the use of scribes and the relationship between writer and scribe, and the writer's family and his scribe in the letters of British Royal Navy servicemen below the rank of commissioned officer during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1793–1815.
Webb, Laura. "Testimonio, the Assumption of Hybridity and the Issue of Genre." Studies in Testimony, vol. 2, no. 1, 2019, n.p.
Explores the definition of testimonio, the reasons for the assumption of hybridity in Latin American literature, and the problems created by this assumption when discussing testimonial production, and the wider issue of labelling of testimonio as a genre.
Explores the definition of testimonio, the reasons for the assumption of hybridity in Latin American literature, and the problems created by this assumption when discussing testimonial production, and the wider issue of labelling of testimonio as a genre.
Webber, Melinda, and Kaupa O'Connor. "A Fire in the Belly of Hineāmaru: Using Whakapapa as a Pedagogical Tool in Education." Genealogy, vol. 3, no. 3, 2019, n.p.
Discusses how strength-based narratives can be used as powerful pedagogical tools that enhance Te Tai Tokerau Māori students' self-efficacy, aspiration, optimism, and cultural pride, presenting such students as powerful agents of their own destiny.
Discusses how strength-based narratives can be used as powerful pedagogical tools that enhance Te Tai Tokerau Māori students' self-efficacy, aspiration, optimism, and cultural pride, presenting such students as powerful agents of their own destiny.
Weber, Kelly. "'We are the Poem': Structural Fissures and Levels in Lidia Yuknavitch's The Chronology of Water." Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, 2019, n.p.
Argues that Yuknavitch's use of poetry serves as a model for writers dealing with similar themes or interested in drawing on patterns of thinking from other artistic disciplines.
Argues that Yuknavitch's use of poetry serves as a model for writers dealing with similar themes or interested in drawing on patterns of thinking from other artistic disciplines.
Wei, Xue, and Zhan Quan. "A Summary of Biographies of 'Contemporary Writers' in the 40 Years of Reform and Opening Up." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 13, 2019, pp. 13–27.
Discusses the reasons for the prosperity and vitality of biographies of contemporary writers as well as the shortcomings in the writings.
Discusses the reasons for the prosperity and vitality of biographies of contemporary writers as well as the shortcomings in the writings.
Wells, Marion. "The Tears of Rachel: Lament and Affective Improvisation in Mary Carey's Spiritual Dialogue, Meditations, and Poems." ELH, vol. 86, no. 3, 2019, pp. 669–97.
Places seventeenth-century writer Mary Carey's elegies for her lost children in the context of her complete manuscript, a life narrative that combines elements of the mother's legacy and the confessional narrative with a dialogue between body and soul.
Places seventeenth-century writer Mary Carey's elegies for her lost children in the context of her complete manuscript, a life narrative that combines elements of the mother's legacy and the confessional narrative with a dialogue between body and soul.
Werner, Binder, and Dmitry Kurakin. "Biography and Form of Life: Toward a Cultural Analysis of Narrative Interviews." Sociológia, vol. 51, no. 6, 2019, pp. 563–83.
Introduces the concept of form of life, socially shaped and shared meaning structures of actors situated in material contexts, as a tool for the cultural-sociological analysis of biographies and life trajectories.
Introduces the concept of form of life, socially shaped and shared meaning structures of actors situated in material contexts, as a tool for the cultural-sociological analysis of biographies and life trajectories.
Wilson, Charles Reagan. "Contesting the Southern Way of Life: Katharine Du Pre Lumpkin's Autobiography and the Progressive American South during the Interwar Years." Developing Transnational American Studies, edited by Nadja Gernalzick and Heike Spickermann, Universitätsverlag Winter, 2019, pp. 45–54.
Focuses on Lumpkin's description of Southern culture, her family background, and the cultural construction of race, showing how her account critically invokes how structures and elements like those in the Southern raciology of the United States continue to find resurgence transnationally.
Focuses on Lumpkin's description of Southern culture, her family background, and the cultural construction of race, showing how her account critically invokes how structures and elements like those in the Southern raciology of the United States continue to find resurgence transnationally.
Wolloch, Nathaniel. "Edward Gibbon's Autobiographies and the Historicist Critique of Enlightenment Historiography." Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas, vol. 17, no. 1, 2019, pp. 1–22.
Considers Gibbon's attempts to mold his public image for posterity while rewriting versions of his autobiography, highlighting his anticipation of a critical reading of his memoirs, especially regarding his attitude toward religion and views on how to write history.
Considers Gibbon's attempts to mold his public image for posterity while rewriting versions of his autobiography, highlighting his anticipation of a critical reading of his memoirs, especially regarding his attitude toward religion and views on how to write history.
Wyver, Richey. "Eating the [M]Other: Exploring Swedish Adoption Consumption Fantasies." Genealogy, vol. 3, no. 4, 2019, n.p.
Uses deconstructive narrative analysis techniques to explore racial desires concealed and revealed in adopters' descriptions of international transracial adoptee bodies in published Swedish adoption texts, maintaining and reinforcing the status quo of the white supremacist patriarchal structures that enable international adoption.
Uses deconstructive narrative analysis techniques to explore racial desires concealed and revealed in adopters' descriptions of international transracial adoptee bodies in published Swedish adoption texts, maintaining and reinforcing the status quo of the white supremacist patriarchal structures that enable international adoption.
Xu, Jingpin. "The May Fourth New Culture Movement and Chinese Modern Biography." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 12, 2019, pp. 161–73.
Finds echoes of and a tribute to the New Cultural Movement in Chinese modern biography.
Finds echoes of and a tribute to the New Cultural Movement in Chinese modern biography.
Xu, Qinchao. "The Power of Invention: Anne Hathaway in Shakespeare's Biographies." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 13, 2019, pp. 122–37.
Considers the vitality of invention in efforts to depict the life of Anne Hathaway.
Considers the vitality of invention in efforts to depict the life of Anne Hathaway.
Xu, Xiaohong. "A Study on Zhou Zuoren's Visit to Japan in 1934: Taking the Contact with Dojin Association as a Clue." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 13, 2019, pp. 223–34.
Discusses Zhou Zuoren's visit to Japan in 1934 and his relations with the Dojin Association.
Discusses Zhou Zuoren's visit to Japan in 1934 and his relations with the Dojin Association.
Xu, Xiaoyu. "42, a Fatal Age: A New Clue to the Enigma of Gogol." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 12, 2019, pp. 202–15.
Suggests that the repetition of death at forty-two in three of Gogol's novels reveals the sexual psychology of his unconscious.
Suggests that the repetition of death at forty-two in three of Gogol's novels reveals the sexual psychology of his unconscious.
Xue, Haojie. "The Resistance to Suffering and the Increase of Life Value: On the Autobiographical Works by Disabled Contemporary Writers." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 13, 2019, pp. 54–65.
Examines how four autobiographical works by disabled contemporary writers view resistance to suffering and increase the value of life.
Examines how four autobiographical works by disabled contemporary writers view resistance to suffering and increase the value of life.
Xue, Yufeng. "Mark Twain's Get-Rich-Quick Complex: From 'The Tennessee Land' in Autobiography of Mark Twain." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 13, 2019, pp. 166–78.
Uses Twain's phrase "The Tennessee Land" as the password to understanding the source and significance of his "get-rich-quick complex" and "get-rich-quick narrative."
Uses Twain's phrase "The Tennessee Land" as the password to understanding the source and significance of his "get-rich-quick complex" and "get-rich-quick narrative."
Yang, Shihua. "Female Intellectuals' Media Writing in Feminist Film: A Comparative Study of Hannah Arendt and The Golden Era." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 12, 2019, pp. 238–49.
Reveals the differences in material selection, narration, form, and content in two film biographies about female subjects directed by female filmmakers from Germany and China.
Reveals the differences in material selection, narration, form, and content in two film biographies about female subjects directed by female filmmakers from Germany and China.
Yoo, Theodore Jun. "Muhammad Kkansu and the Diasporic Other in the Two Koreas." Korean Studies, vol. 43, 2019, pp. 145–68.
Challenges master narratives of national culture, homogeneity, belongingness, and identity in the life story of Muhammad Kkansu, a distinguished foreign professor of Arabic history and culture indicted in 1996 on charges of espionage and use of a false identity.
Challenges master narratives of national culture, homogeneity, belongingness, and identity in the life story of Muhammad Kkansu, a distinguished foreign professor of Arabic history and culture indicted in 1996 on charges of espionage and use of a false identity.
Zekri, Souhir. "'Real Men Mark their Territory!' Spatial Constructions of Masculinity in Joe Pieri's Autobiographical Narratives." European Journal of Life Writing, vol. 8, 2019, pp. 47–68.
Examines how Pieri's spatial narration influences his construction of masculinities.
Examines how Pieri's spatial narration influences his construction of masculinities.
Zhang, Wenru, and Yaxiao Cui. "Biography As Travel Writing: A Study of George Morrison's An Australian in China." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 12, 2019, pp. 111–23.
Demonstrates that George Morrison's An Australian in China focuses on people rather than scenery, and applies an objective and observant eye to his subject matter.
Demonstrates that George Morrison's An Australian in China focuses on people rather than scenery, and applies an objective and observant eye to his subject matter.
Zhang, Yang. "Self-Establishment through History, A Comment on Zhang Xinying's The First Half of Shen Congwen's Life (1902–1948)." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 13, 2019, pp. 28–40.
Argues that Shen constantly discovers and establishes himself in his retrospective work.
Argues that Shen constantly discovers and establishes himself in his retrospective work.
Zhao, Shankui. "Note on an Autobiographical Narrative in Franz Kafka's Diary." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 13, 2019, pp. 179–92.
Compares different versions of Kafka's diaries and biographies from some of his family members and explores how they were converted to literary stories.
Compares different versions of Kafka's diaries and biographies from some of his family members and explores how they were converted to literary stories.
Zheng, Chunguang. "'Literature of Necessity': On the Utility of the African Slave Narrative." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 12, 2019, pp. 174–87.
Identifies the essential role African slave narratives play in African American history and life.
Identifies the essential role African slave narratives play in African American history and life.
Zhang, Longxi. "Nature and Life Writing: A Comparative Study of Henry David Thoreau and Tao Qian." Developing Transnational American Studies, edited by Nadja Gernalzick and Heike Spickermann, Universitätsverlag Winter, 2019, pp. 57–67.
Investigates how proximity to the natural environment can be sensed through Thoreau and Tao Qian's works across medial, temporal, and cultural differences, and shows how they commonly link the experience of nature to spirituality by addressing aesthetics and human perception.
Investigates how proximity to the natural environment can be sensed through Thoreau and Tao Qian's works across medial, temporal, and cultural differences, and shows how they commonly link the experience of nature to spirituality by addressing aesthetics and human perception.
Zhou, Qianwen. "Looking at Film Biography from the Perspective of Performance Framework." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 12, 2019, pp. 224–37.
Traces the shift from textuality to performance in filmic biography.
Traces the shift from textuality to performance in filmic biography.
Zhu, Yan. "Nature and Self-identity: A Case Study of The View from Castle Rock." Journal of Modern Life Writing Studies, no. 13, 2019, pp. 66–78.
Argues that Alice Munro's The View from Castle Rock reflects her thinking on self-identity, in terms of national, class, and gender identity, and the meaning of being.
Argues that Alice Munro's The View from Castle Rock reflects her thinking on self-identity, in terms of national, class, and gender identity, and the meaning of being.
Zlydneva, Natalia. "On Artists' Self-Portraits and Autobiographies." AvtobiografiЯ, no.8, 2019, pp. 313–32.
Considers self-portraiture in fine art in comparison with ego-texts written by artists.
Considers self-portraiture in fine art in comparison with ego-texts written by artists.
Zwartjes, Arianne. "Under the Skin: An Exploration of Autotheory." Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, vol. 6, no. 1, n.p.
Explores theory and embodiment, innovation and assessment, multiplicity and rupture in the contemporary field of autotheory as part of the broader genre of creative nonfiction.
Explores theory and embodiment, innovation and assessment, multiplicity and rupture in the contemporary field of autotheory as part of the broader genre of creative nonfiction.
Dissertations
Ach, Jada. "Sand, Water, Salt: Managing the Elements in Literature of the American West, 1880–1925." University of South Carolina, 2019.
Considers human engagements with "managed lands" in Progressive Era fiction, memoirs, irrigation maps, aerial photographs, dry farming manifestos, and other texts to provide a set of interdisciplinary tools with which to read environmental agency in the Anthropocene.
Considers human engagements with "managed lands" in Progressive Era fiction, memoirs, irrigation maps, aerial photographs, dry farming manifestos, and other texts to provide a set of interdisciplinary tools with which to read environmental agency in the Anthropocene.
Al Sahib, May. "From the individual to the collective in the writings of Radwa Ashour and Ahdaf Soueif." University of Kent at Canterbury, 2019.
Examines eight fictional and non-fictional works by Egyptian writers Radwa Ashour and Ahdaf Soueif that critique political authoritarianism and voice social concerns through exploration and expression of selfhood, historical representations, and collective memory.
Examines eight fictional and non-fictional works by Egyptian writers Radwa Ashour and Ahdaf Soueif that critique political authoritarianism and voice social concerns through exploration and expression of selfhood, historical representations, and collective memory.
Alexander, Phoenix. "Voices with Vision: Writing Black, Feminist Futures in Twentieth Century African America." Yale University, 2019.
Trace a black, feminist science fiction genealogy by analyzing the Octavia E. Butler papers at the Huntington Library, arguing that the archive is a future-oriented and speculative process that acts as shelter, authority, and foundation for black women's speculative literature.
Trace a black, feminist science fiction genealogy by analyzing the Octavia E. Butler papers at the Huntington Library, arguing that the archive is a future-oriented and speculative process that acts as shelter, authority, and foundation for black women's speculative literature.
Ali, Ashna. "Migritude: Migrant Structures of Feeling in Minor Literatures of Globalization." City University of New York, 2019.
Examines the affect and poetics of works by Shailja Patel, Saidiya Hartman, Gaiutra Bahadur, Cristina Ali Farah, and Igiaba Scego to show how migritude texts share a structure of feeling particular to global migrants with an emphasis on anger, shame, and ambivalence.
Examines the affect and poetics of works by Shailja Patel, Saidiya Hartman, Gaiutra Bahadur, Cristina Ali Farah, and Igiaba Scego to show how migritude texts share a structure of feeling particular to global migrants with an emphasis on anger, shame, and ambivalence.
Amrine, Jolynn. "Chehalis Stories." The University of Alabama, 2019.
Presents a critical edition of the Chehalis stories collected by Franz Boas on the Chehalis Reservation in 1927 with the goal of repatriating these stories to the Chehalis people.
Presents a critical edition of the Chehalis stories collected by Franz Boas on the Chehalis Reservation in 1927 with the goal of repatriating these stories to the Chehalis people.
Atkins, Edwin Stewart. "The Creation of Character in Francisco de Quevedo's Biographies." Yale University, 2019.
Examines how Francisco de Quevedo (1580–1645), the foremost biographer of Spain's Golden Age, constructed character in the four biographies he published during his lifetime of ancient and modern personages by translating and unfaithfully summarizing his sources.
Examines how Francisco de Quevedo (1580–1645), the foremost biographer of Spain's Golden Age, constructed character in the four biographies he published during his lifetime of ancient and modern personages by translating and unfaithfully summarizing his sources.
Barnett, Amanda Cutaia. "American Women in Health Fields: Identity Formation and Cultural Positioning in Autobiographical Literature, 1847–1910." Texas Christian University, 2019.
Argues that women in several health fields constructed their identities through autobiographical literature, using the power they gained from liminal moments in the social and medical discourses to claim agency and advocate for other women.
Argues that women in several health fields constructed their identities through autobiographical literature, using the power they gained from liminal moments in the social and medical discourses to claim agency and advocate for other women.
Beck, Benjamin Shearer. "Matters of Life: Writing Lives in the Age of United States Slavery." University of California, Los Angeles, 2019.
Shows how biographical novellas, collective biographies, and scrapbooks offer alternative accounts about the possible life stories and forms life writing takes during the age of slavery in the United States.
Shows how biographical novellas, collective biographies, and scrapbooks offer alternative accounts about the possible life stories and forms life writing takes during the age of slavery in the United States.
Bedaiwi, Hayat Tawfiq. "Vignettes for Educating the Non-Arab Non-Muslim Reader: Subversion and Survival of Hakawati Figures." Ball State University, 2019.
Highlights the strategies Arab American authors use in memoirs, novels, comic books, and ethnography to negotiate dominant American cultural attitudes about assimilation, ethnicity, and gender to forge empathetic bonds and create community among Arab American, non-Arab, and non-Muslim readers through the figure of the hakawati, or storyteller.
Highlights the strategies Arab American authors use in memoirs, novels, comic books, and ethnography to negotiate dominant American cultural attitudes about assimilation, ethnicity, and gender to forge empathetic bonds and create community among Arab American, non-Arab, and non-Muslim readers through the figure of the hakawati, or storyteller.
Bender, Jennifer R. "Widow Narratives on Film and in Memoirs: Exploring Formula Stories of Grief and Loss of Older Women After the Death of a Spouse." University of South Florida, 2019.
Analyzes written and mediated narratives about widows' post-loss experiences, specifically for how they embody and adjust/adhere to their post-loss widow identities, and whether or not the canonical/formula stories about widows reflect current experiences of widowhood.
Analyzes written and mediated narratives about widows' post-loss experiences, specifically for how they embody and adjust/adhere to their post-loss widow identities, and whether or not the canonical/formula stories about widows reflect current experiences of widowhood.
Bijos, Agnieszka. "La Distancia y el Silencio: el Trauma en la Literatura Testimonial en Torno a las Dictaduras Militares de Chile, Uruguay y Argentina." University of Toronto, 2019.
Examines the inherent relationship between testimonial representations of traumatic events, and the political and temporal context of their articulation: during, right after, and long after.
Examines the inherent relationship between testimonial representations of traumatic events, and the political and temporal context of their articulation: during, right after, and long after.
Bond, Susan Lydia. "'A Shark in the Garden': Adoptee Memoir as Testimonial Literature—A Creative and Analytical Reflection." CQ University, 2019.
Addresses the taxonomic and testimonial issues associated with the adoptee memoir, with a focus on late discovery adoptees, and includes my own memoir of living with my adoptive parents and discovering my adoptive origins as an adult.
Addresses the taxonomic and testimonial issues associated with the adoptee memoir, with a focus on late discovery adoptees, and includes my own memoir of living with my adoptive parents and discovering my adoptive origins as an adult.
Brix, Catherine M. "Transformative (Re)Inscriptions: Traumatic Memories and Testimonio in Chile." University of Notre Dame, 2019.
Analyzes Luz Arce's 1993 testimonial narrative, El infierno, through four critical approaches, narratological, juridical, psychoanalytical, and ethical, to illuminate testimonio's significance.
Analyzes Luz Arce's 1993 testimonial narrative, El infierno, through four critical approaches, narratological, juridical, psychoanalytical, and ethical, to illuminate testimonio's significance.
Brown, Rachel Linnea. "Rough Forms: Autobiographical Interventions in the U.S. West, 1835–1935." University of Kansas, 2019.
Analyzes US Western autobiographies from 1835 to 1935, focusing especially on ways that Native and non-Native authors complicate settler-colonial narratives to provide vibrant archives of resistance to Indigenous erasure rarely seen in more canonical works.
Analyzes US Western autobiographies from 1835 to 1935, focusing especially on ways that Native and non-Native authors complicate settler-colonial narratives to provide vibrant archives of resistance to Indigenous erasure rarely seen in more canonical works.
Bullock, Christina L. "Identities on the Road: An Analysis of Women's Automotive Blog Narratives." Regent University, 2019.
Explores the communicative nature of identity through blog narratives within women's automotive websites and shows how these narratives provide insight into their personal, enacted, relational, and communal layers of identity.
Explores the communicative nature of identity through blog narratives within women's automotive websites and shows how these narratives provide insight into their personal, enacted, relational, and communal layers of identity.
Campbell, Matthew Alan. "Reel-to-Real: Intimate Audio Epistolarity During the Vietnam War." The Ohio State University, 2019.
Examines "audio letters" as prosthetic culture, defined as technologies that allow human beings to extend and manipulate aspects of their person beyond their own bodies, for what they reveal about the impact of war and separation on American soldiers and their families.
Examines "audio letters" as prosthetic culture, defined as technologies that allow human beings to extend and manipulate aspects of their person beyond their own bodies, for what they reveal about the impact of war and separation on American soldiers and their families.
Campo, Joseph Allen. "Desert Fox or Hitler Favorite? Myths and Memories of Erwin Rommel: 1941–1970." University of California, Santa Barbara, 2019.
Argues that the clashing visions of "Desert Fox" and the "Hitler favorite" show how British and US publics grappled with judging the degree to which men like Rommel, and more generally Germans during World War II, should be held accountable for Nazi atrocities.
Argues that the clashing visions of "Desert Fox" and the "Hitler favorite" show how British and US publics grappled with judging the degree to which men like Rommel, and more generally Germans during World War II, should be held accountable for Nazi atrocities.
Carlson, Amy. "Reading Mediated Identities: Auto/Biographical Agency in the Material Book, Museum Space, Social Media Platforms, and Archives." University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, 2019.
Considers the invisible or ignored mediations operating on life narratives to reveal the ever-changing strategies authors, artists, and corporate social media platforms adopt to shape, control, or resist the auto/biographical in the material book, the museum gallery and its associated online counterparts, social media platforms, and archives.
Considers the invisible or ignored mediations operating on life narratives to reveal the ever-changing strategies authors, artists, and corporate social media platforms adopt to shape, control, or resist the auto/biographical in the material book, the museum gallery and its associated online counterparts, social media platforms, and archives.
Chhun, Lina. "Walking with the Ghost: Contested Silences, Memory-Making, and Cambodian/American Histories of Violence." University of California, Los Angeles, 2019.
Challenges historical models of "tragedy" and individualized models of trauma—as damage-centered, deviance-driven, and/or invested in abjection, vulnerability, and injury—which disavow the complex humanity of Cambodian survivors and the continually intersubjective ways knowledge about violence and Cambodia is produced and reproduced.
Challenges historical models of "tragedy" and individualized models of trauma—as damage-centered, deviance-driven, and/or invested in abjection, vulnerability, and injury—which disavow the complex humanity of Cambodian survivors and the continually intersubjective ways knowledge about violence and Cambodia is produced and reproduced.
Combs, D Shane. "When Affect Meets the Relational: A Dialogical, Life Writing Approach to English Studies." Illinois State University, 2019.
Responds to a lack of explicit conversation and pedagogical approaches regarding life writing and interior individual experience in composition studies, and considers the detrimental equation of the internal with expressivism and its implications for writing pedagogy.
Responds to a lack of explicit conversation and pedagogical approaches regarding life writing and interior individual experience in composition studies, and considers the detrimental equation of the internal with expressivism and its implications for writing pedagogy.
Dorwart, Laura Margaret. "Mad Girls: Charting Cultural Representations of Psychosocial Disability and Contemporary Hysteria(s)." University of California, San Diego, 2019.
Analyzes narratives of self-harm in pop culture and performance disseminated by girls through social media and other online platforms as a form of group identification.
Analyzes narratives of self-harm in pop culture and performance disseminated by girls through social media and other online platforms as a form of group identification.
Douglas, Kita. "Graphic Intimations: Postwar to Contemporary Asian Diasporic Art and Writing." Duke University, 2019.
Traces the Asian diasporic graphic's investments in embodied creative practices that intimate the sensible and sensual in queer, interracial, and cross-cultural liaisons.
Traces the Asian diasporic graphic's investments in embodied creative practices that intimate the sensible and sensual in queer, interracial, and cross-cultural liaisons.
Dowman, Sarah. "Change Is Sound: Resistance and Activism in Queer Latinx Punk Rock." University of Maryland, College Park, 2019.
Explores the roles punk ethos, discourses, and collectivism play in creating resistant practices within queer US Latinx punk communities since the 1970s, through an analysis of performative and activist interventions and the creation of online collective revisionist writings.
Explores the roles punk ethos, discourses, and collectivism play in creating resistant practices within queer US Latinx punk communities since the 1970s, through an analysis of performative and activist interventions and the creation of online collective revisionist writings.
Englekirk, Jordan Max-Ryan. "The Third Team: Unmasking Fraternity and Masculinity among Major League Baseball Umpires 1970–2010." American University, 2019.
Examines how concepts of masculinity, brotherhood, honor, and health in American popular culture influence the ways that Major League umpires perform their trade on and off the field, through an analysis of oral histories, memoirs, artifacts, game film, and archives.
Examines how concepts of masculinity, brotherhood, honor, and health in American popular culture influence the ways that Major League umpires perform their trade on and off the field, through an analysis of oral histories, memoirs, artifacts, game film, and archives.
Farinholt, Rhett William. "Consider the Pill: Pharmacentric Readings of Post-WWII American Literature." University of California, San Diego, 2019.
Traces the development of the "neurochemical self" in the work of the Beat writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, the confessional poetry of Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton, and depression memoirs by Elizabeth Wurtzel and Meri Nana-Ama Danquah.
Traces the development of the "neurochemical self" in the work of the Beat writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, the confessional poetry of Robert Lowell and Anne Sexton, and depression memoirs by Elizabeth Wurtzel and Meri Nana-Ama Danquah.
Ferebee, Kristin Michelle. "Radiant Beings: Narratives of Contamination and Mutation in Literatures of the Anthropocene." The Ohio State University, 2019.
Suggests that narratives highlighting contamination demonstrate anxiety over the sustainability of Western liberal humanism and its foundational human figure, while contamination narratives, from Marvel Comics to memoir, are already rejecting the problematic ideology of the human, and envisioning what might come next.
Suggests that narratives highlighting contamination demonstrate anxiety over the sustainability of Western liberal humanism and its foundational human figure, while contamination narratives, from Marvel Comics to memoir, are already rejecting the problematic ideology of the human, and envisioning what might come next.
Fleck, Malcolm Alexander. "The Narrative and Descriptive Influence of Latin Hagiography on Beowulf." University of Toronto, 2019.
Argues that the Beowulf-poet incorporated narrative and descriptive tendencies conventional to Latin hagiography into the Old English poem in spite of divergent subject-matter.
Argues that the Beowulf-poet incorporated narrative and descriptive tendencies conventional to Latin hagiography into the Old English poem in spite of divergent subject-matter.
Gee, Robyn Kristine. "From Pen to Podcast: Facilitating Critical Moral Reasoning and Critical Consciousness through Constructing Narratives of Personal Conflicts." University of California, Berkeley, 2019.
Investigates 10th grade students' shifts in reasoning, perspective, resolution, domains of social reasoning, domain coordination, and storytelling elements between handwritten narratives of personal conflicts and digital podcast versions of the same conflicts.
Investigates 10th grade students' shifts in reasoning, perspective, resolution, domains of social reasoning, domain coordination, and storytelling elements between handwritten narratives of personal conflicts and digital podcast versions of the same conflicts.
Gildersleeve, Courtney L. "Writing beyond Redress: Slavery and the Work of Literature." University of Minnesota, 2019.
Traces a dialectic of confinement and emancipation in the fight against slavery and its attendant ideologies in autobiographical texts that foreground these sites of confinement: the prison, the sugar plantation, the peasant village, and the immigration detention center.
Traces a dialectic of confinement and emancipation in the fight against slavery and its attendant ideologies in autobiographical texts that foreground these sites of confinement: the prison, the sugar plantation, the peasant village, and the immigration detention center.
Gillan, Thomas Joseph. "Much Study Is a Weariness to the Flesh: Scholars and the Pursuit of Health in Early New England." The College of William and Mary, 2019.
Approaches intellectual history as the product of social, material, and embodied experiences and cultural practices, drawing on letters, diaries, college faculty minutes, student manuals, lectures, and formal medical treatises.
Approaches intellectual history as the product of social, material, and embodied experiences and cultural practices, drawing on letters, diaries, college faculty minutes, student manuals, lectures, and formal medical treatises.
Grinberg, Amit Omri. "Writing Rights, Writing Violence: The Bureaucracy of Palestinian Testimonies in Israeli Human Rights NGOs." University of Toronto, 2019.
Delves into the "frames of in/validation" Israeli anti-occupation NGOs employ to translate testimonies of violence into written texts suitable for legal-action purposes, research, and media circulation, which they archive as the basis for future moral-political judgments.
Delves into the "frames of in/validation" Israeli anti-occupation NGOs employ to translate testimonies of violence into written texts suitable for legal-action purposes, research, and media circulation, which they archive as the basis for future moral-political judgments.
Guzman, Maricela Guerrero. "Llegando a la Loma de las Sonrisas: Testimonios of Mexican-American Migrant Women." The University of Texas at San Antonio, 2019.
Explores the lives of successful Mexican-American female educational leaders, who were migrants, in an effort to learn how they successfully negotiated their way through the various systems they encountered based on the testimonios they shared.
Explores the lives of successful Mexican-American female educational leaders, who were migrants, in an effort to learn how they successfully negotiated their way through the various systems they encountered based on the testimonios they shared.
Hall, Shawn Cailey. "Visceral Romanticism: The Literature and Culture of Digestion, 1780–1830." University of California, Los Angeles, 2019
Assembles an archive of poetry, memoir, a novel, essays, and popular science linking food, the body, and the environment to argue that the bowels are the Romantic period's paradigmatic organ, a somatic and figurative space of literal and literary consumption.
Assembles an archive of poetry, memoir, a novel, essays, and popular science linking food, the body, and the environment to argue that the bowels are the Romantic period's paradigmatic organ, a somatic and figurative space of literal and literary consumption.
Hart, Amy. "Life After Community: The Communitarian Women who Transformed Nineteenth-Century American Society." University of California, Santa Cruz, 2019.
Analyzes letters, journals, meeting minutes, and newspaper articles to argue that women in intentional communities across the United States throughout the 1840s used their communitarian social connections and personal experiences to engage women's rights and abolitionist movements and shape the ideological underpinnings of those movements.
Analyzes letters, journals, meeting minutes, and newspaper articles to argue that women in intentional communities across the United States throughout the 1840s used their communitarian social connections and personal experiences to engage women's rights and abolitionist movements and shape the ideological underpinnings of those movements.
Hayes, Bea Francis. "Life Narratives of Vulnerable Adolescents: The Heroes with Whom They Identify." Fielding Graduate University, 2019.
Illustrates the relevance of real and fictional role models and heroes in the autobiographical narratives of residentially placed adolescents who describe their role models and heroes in the context of non-normative family life trajectories and caregiver/attachment history.
Illustrates the relevance of real and fictional role models and heroes in the autobiographical narratives of residentially placed adolescents who describe their role models and heroes in the context of non-normative family life trajectories and caregiver/attachment history.
Heiss, Lydia Helene. "Literarische Identätskonstruktionen und das Verhältnis zu Deutschland in ausgesuchten Werken zeitgenössischer jüdischer Schriftstellerinnen Deutscher Sprache." The University of Arizona, 2019.
Argues that the Holocaust is no longer the central characteristic of Jewish identity in Germany, but locates a request for a peaceful, undisturbed, "normal" life among contemporary or third generation Jewish autofiction writers in Germany.
Argues that the Holocaust is no longer the central characteristic of Jewish identity in Germany, but locates a request for a peaceful, undisturbed, "normal" life among contemporary or third generation Jewish autofiction writers in Germany.
Huebenthal, Jan. "Injury & Resistance: Centering HIV/AIDS Histories in Times of Queer Equality." The College of William and Mary, 2019.
Uses oral histories, memoirs, photography, medical publications, newspapers, documentary film, and other archives to insist that contemporary queer culture and politics draw on its history of resistance and dissent to respond to the ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis.
Uses oral histories, memoirs, photography, medical publications, newspapers, documentary film, and other archives to insist that contemporary queer culture and politics draw on its history of resistance and dissent to respond to the ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis.
Hutson, Emma. "Lived Experience and Literature: Trans Authors, Trans Fiction and Trans Theory." Sheffield Hallam University, 2019.
Relates contemporary trans rights discourses to contemporary trans fiction by trans authors, arguing that trans theory is well-positioned to gauge the impact of theoretical concerns on subjective experience, linking seemingly disparate communities through shared oppression.
Relates contemporary trans rights discourses to contemporary trans fiction by trans authors, arguing that trans theory is well-positioned to gauge the impact of theoretical concerns on subjective experience, linking seemingly disparate communities through shared oppression.
Issacharoff, Jess. "Big House: Women, Prison, and the Domestic." Duke University, 2019.
Traces the confinement and control of women and the evolving ideological frameworks and disciplinary techniques that guided women's incarceration through an analysis of personal narratives, domestic homemaking manuals, TV shows, judicial opinions, and other sources.
Traces the confinement and control of women and the evolving ideological frameworks and disciplinary techniques that guided women's incarceration through an analysis of personal narratives, domestic homemaking manuals, TV shows, judicial opinions, and other sources.
Jensen, Robyn. "Double-exposure: Picturing the Self in Russian Émigré Culture." Columbia University, 2019.
Explores how the medium of photography functions within Russian émigré narratives of the self, using "double exposure" to represent exilic double consciousness, the tension between multiple selves, as a model for a composite structure that joins together word and image.
Explores how the medium of photography functions within Russian émigré narratives of the self, using "double exposure" to represent exilic double consciousness, the tension between multiple selves, as a model for a composite structure that joins together word and image.
Kelly, Lisa. "Constructing Celebrity: Strategies of Nineteenth Century British Actresses to Enhance Their Image and Social Status." Northwestern University, 2019.
Investigates how actresses used charity events, autobiographical writing, and advertising campaigns to rehabilitate and normalize their reputations to achieve social mobility and acceptance, while responding to and defying gender norms and social structures.
Investigates how actresses used charity events, autobiographical writing, and advertising campaigns to rehabilitate and normalize their reputations to achieve social mobility and acceptance, while responding to and defying gender norms and social structures.
Kersulov, Michael L. "Framing Narratives: Gifted Students' Comic Memoirs in the English Classroom." Indiana University, 2019.
Focuses on the literacy practices of three students who composed multimodal comic memoirs about the emotional struggles and obstacles they faced related to being labeled academically gifted and talented.
Focuses on the literacy practices of three students who composed multimodal comic memoirs about the emotional struggles and obstacles they faced related to being labeled academically gifted and talented.
Khan-Thomas, Zeba. "Black Then and Now: Interior Life and the Transformative Black Self." Indiana University, 2019.
Examines the autobiographies, memoirs, poetry, and self-reflective musical lyricism of twentieth and twenty-first century Black writers and popular musical artists through the framework of Black interiority and its three pillars: the soul, Self, and spirit.
Examines the autobiographies, memoirs, poetry, and self-reflective musical lyricism of twentieth and twenty-first century Black writers and popular musical artists through the framework of Black interiority and its three pillars: the soul, Self, and spirit.
Killian, Doria Beth. "And You Shall Tell Your Children: The Intersection of Memory, Identity, and Narrative in Contemporary German Jewish Autofiction." Georgetown University, 2019.
Examines the autofictional works of three Jewish women writing in German to understand how narrative, storytelling, and writing are used at the diegetic and meta-levels to negotiate familial and cultural memory and to construct a contemporary German Jewish identity.
Examines the autofictional works of three Jewish women writing in German to understand how narrative, storytelling, and writing are used at the diegetic and meta-levels to negotiate familial and cultural memory and to construct a contemporary German Jewish identity.
Kling, Rebecca. "Civil Ghosts: Transatlantic (Il)literacy and Personhood." University of California, Davis, 2019.
Illuminates divergent ideologies of literacy and personhood in the United States and England, utilizing literary and non-literary texts from the nineteenth century centered on trajectories of negative personhood of prisoners, slaves, and vagrant laborers in accordance with the idea that a nation is defined by how it treats its most oppressed citizens.
Illuminates divergent ideologies of literacy and personhood in the United States and England, utilizing literary and non-literary texts from the nineteenth century centered on trajectories of negative personhood of prisoners, slaves, and vagrant laborers in accordance with the idea that a nation is defined by how it treats its most oppressed citizens.
Larrarte, Bárbara Gallego. "Reverse intergenerational influence between the World Wars: E. M. Forster, T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf and their networks." University of Oxford, 2019.
Focuses on intergenerational relationships forged within the intellectual, social, publishing, familial, and friendship networks of E. M. Forster, T. S. Eliot, and Virginia Woolf during the interwar years to show how their younger peers affected these twentieth-century writers.
Focuses on intergenerational relationships forged within the intellectual, social, publishing, familial, and friendship networks of E. M. Forster, T. S. Eliot, and Virginia Woolf during the interwar years to show how their younger peers affected these twentieth-century writers.
Levingston, Sagashus T. "Infamous Mothering or 'Bad' Mothers Who Do 'Good' Things: Theories and Images of Maternal Activism." The University of Wisconsin, Madison, 2019.
Reads neo-slave narrative, science/speculative fiction, and autobiography from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries to show how mothers who live outside of respectability are represented as change agents in black women's literature.
Reads neo-slave narrative, science/speculative fiction, and autobiography from the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries to show how mothers who live outside of respectability are represented as change agents in black women's literature.
Lindberg, Autumn Alisabeth. "Adopting Resilience: Parent Narratives that Promote Permanent Adoption Placements." Northcentral University, 2019.
Studies the narrative themes that emerge from interviews with eleven families who successfully maintained custody of their foster adoptive children.
Studies the narrative themes that emerge from interviews with eleven families who successfully maintained custody of their foster adoptive children.
Littlejohn, Murray. "Contemporary Confessions: Philosophical Engagements with Saint Augustine's Confessions." Boston College, 2019.
Considers how Confessions influenced Wittgenstein, Gadamer, Ricoeur, and Marion's thinking on the autobiographical and confessional character of philosophy.
Considers how Confessions influenced Wittgenstein, Gadamer, Ricoeur, and Marion's thinking on the autobiographical and confessional character of philosophy.
McLaughlin, Olena. "Remembering Kin: Constructing Creek Tribal Sites of Memory." Oklahoma State University, 2019.
Investigates Creek texts as sites of kinship memory, reflecting tribally specific past and present, and containing tribally specific worldviews, histories and everyday practices, that construct the future by shaping the community's cultural present.
Investigates Creek texts as sites of kinship memory, reflecting tribally specific past and present, and containing tribally specific worldviews, histories and everyday practices, that construct the future by shaping the community's cultural present.
McLoughlin, Caitlyn Teresa. "The Queer Genealogy and the Medieval Future: Holy Women and Religious Practice." Ohio State University, 2019.
Reconsiders hagiographic narratives about holy women, arguing that medieval conceptions of community, sexuality, and devotional practice are future-orientated and queer.
Reconsiders hagiographic narratives about holy women, arguing that medieval conceptions of community, sexuality, and devotional practice are future-orientated and queer.
McMillan, Margaret Hutchison. "'I Improve this Opportunity to Write to You': Hawaiian Writers to American Readers in the Nineteenth Century." University of Notre Dame, 2019.
Examines an archive of Hawaiian writings in English directed to American readers throughout the nineteenth century that strategically engage the medium of print to assert their sovereign identity on a global stage.
Examines an archive of Hawaiian writings in English directed to American readers throughout the nineteenth century that strategically engage the medium of print to assert their sovereign identity on a global stage.
Montei, Amanda. "Home-Bodies: Language, Genre and Work in Postwar Feminist Writing and Performance." State University of New York at Buffalo, 2019.
Examines women writers who document their domestic labor alongside their artistic work and performance artists who used feminized conditions of labor to inform their public art, illustrating foundational concerns for feminist aesthetics.
Examines women writers who document their domestic labor alongside their artistic work and performance artists who used feminized conditions of labor to inform their public art, illustrating foundational concerns for feminist aesthetics.
Murray, Catherine M. "Captivating a Nation: Women's Indian Captivity and American National Identity, 1787–1830." Temple University, 2019.
Places the scholarship of Indian captivity in conversation with American nationalism to show how Indian captivity narratives created a surface for imagining the nation.
Places the scholarship of Indian captivity in conversation with American nationalism to show how Indian captivity narratives created a surface for imagining the nation.
O'Connor, Brian. "Narrative Posturing: Delimiting the Author-Index in the Contemporary American Novel." Indiana University, 2019.
Delimits the theoretical and practical effects of the author-index, a hyper-form of authorial self-characterization that features characters named for and speaking as their authors, which allows authors to thematize and seek to understand significant aspects of their lives and lifetimes without inherent autobiographical commitments.
Delimits the theoretical and practical effects of the author-index, a hyper-form of authorial self-characterization that features characters named for and speaking as their authors, which allows authors to thematize and seek to understand significant aspects of their lives and lifetimes without inherent autobiographical commitments.
Overduin, Nick. "At the Intersection Between History and Fiction in Biography and Autobiography; A Repositioning, Using the Quest for the Historical Jesus as a Case Study." Trent University, 2019.
Uses Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of dialogism to introduce a relational approach to the study of biography and autobiography in the case of the quest for the historical Jesus.
Uses Mikhail Bakhtin's concept of dialogism to introduce a relational approach to the study of biography and autobiography in the case of the quest for the historical Jesus.
Ozkan, Hediye. "The Agents of Social Change: The Trope of Teachers in American Women's Writing at the End of the Nineteenth Century." Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 2019.
Analyzes the trope of teachers in novels and autobiographies by six female writers at the end of the nineteenth century to show how they use it to interrogate oppressions and call for political and social reform as members of the groups they represented.
Analyzes the trope of teachers in novels and autobiographies by six female writers at the end of the nineteenth century to show how they use it to interrogate oppressions and call for political and social reform as members of the groups they represented.
Phillips, Marion Elizabeth. "Colette, Leduc, Despentes: The Ordinary, the Failed, and the Abject." University of California, Berkeley, 2019.
Considers failure as a strategy for critiquing systems of power that invalidate, silence, and objectify women and their writing in the works of three French women writers.
Considers failure as a strategy for critiquing systems of power that invalidate, silence, and objectify women and their writing in the works of three French women writers.
Pilz, Kristina. "Writing Across Margins: Contemporary Afro-German Literature." University of Washington, 2019.
Theorizes Afro-German poetry and autobiography as aesthetic activism that employs métissage, imagery, autofiction, and multilayering to create collective identities through textual practice in conversation with Black German Studies.
Theorizes Afro-German poetry and autobiography as aesthetic activism that employs métissage, imagery, autofiction, and multilayering to create collective identities through textual practice in conversation with Black German Studies.
Proctor, Devin. "On Being Non-Human: Otherkin Identification and Virtual Space." The George Washington University, 2019.
Argues that digitally-mediated identity and community construction of the Otherkin, people who experience non-human memories, urges, and sensations, characterizes a larger shift from bounded, biologically defined bodies toward an open-bodied identification, a term denoting a more plastic, negotiable type of embodiment.
Argues that digitally-mediated identity and community construction of the Otherkin, people who experience non-human memories, urges, and sensations, characterizes a larger shift from bounded, biologically defined bodies toward an open-bodied identification, a term denoting a more plastic, negotiable type of embodiment.
Ramos Flores, Hector Nicolas. "The Kaleidoscopic Unsaid: Voice, Memory, and Body of the Afro-Americas." University of Minnesota, 2019.
Shows how Black subjects, in autobiography and fiction, navigate malleable and constantly shifting self-representations that both re-inscribe and resist power schemas.
Shows how Black subjects, in autobiography and fiction, navigate malleable and constantly shifting self-representations that both re-inscribe and resist power schemas.
Robins, Anna E. "Selfies, Snaps, and Stories: A Narrative Analysis of Moments Captured in Mobile Photos." Regent University, 2019.
Employs a critical cultural approach to the narratives told by digital natives about the ordinary moments they capture in mobile photos to determine what types of lives these selves are living and whether their narratives collapse or represent lives of purpose.
Employs a critical cultural approach to the narratives told by digital natives about the ordinary moments they capture in mobile photos to determine what types of lives these selves are living and whether their narratives collapse or represent lives of purpose.
Roman, Edgar. "Finding Meaning in Celebrity Sneaker Consumption Experiences: A Narrative Identity Exploration." Fielding Graduate University, 2019.
Finds that narrative identity themes of agency, autonomy, intimacy, and communion are prevalent and recurring in the experiences of celebrity sneaker consumption, while their life stories help shape the lived experience.
Finds that narrative identity themes of agency, autonomy, intimacy, and communion are prevalent and recurring in the experiences of celebrity sneaker consumption, while their life stories help shape the lived experience.
Rowntree, Miriam Renee. "Material Intimacy: Bearing Witness, Listening, and Wandering the Ruins." The University of Texas at Arlington, 2019.
Considers the rhetorical ecology of architectural ruins, specifically those of natural disaster, as actors in a system of human and nonhuman intra-action that has rhetorical potential for material intimacy.
Considers the rhetorical ecology of architectural ruins, specifically those of natural disaster, as actors in a system of human and nonhuman intra-action that has rhetorical potential for material intimacy.
Salaam, Omar J. "A Family Histories Study of Parents Engaging Issues of Race and Racism." University of South Florida, 2019.
Analyzes the effect and structure of parents' life histories concerned with how they socialize their children and engage school staff around issues of race and racism.
Analyzes the effect and structure of parents' life histories concerned with how they socialize their children and engage school staff around issues of race and racism.
Sedano Naviera, Nagore. "Duelos Disidentes: Voces de Mujeres Españolas y Vascas Exiliadas en Latinoamérica." University of Oregon, 2019.
As an alternative to the recuperation-integration paradigm, offers an aesthetics of mourning found in the memoirs of Spanish, Basque republican, and Basque nationalist women-in-exile that maintains the political component of their work.
As an alternative to the recuperation-integration paradigm, offers an aesthetics of mourning found in the memoirs of Spanish, Basque republican, and Basque nationalist women-in-exile that maintains the political component of their work.
Soljour, Kishauna Elaine. "Beyond the Banlieue: French Postcolonial Migration & the Politics of a Sub-Saharan Identity." Syracuse University, 2019.
Historicizes the gaps between French state acculturation policies and Afro-French residents' lived experience from 1945–2018, using the oral histories of black diasporic populations in Paris to reimagine the relevance of race in contemporary French history.
Historicizes the gaps between French state acculturation policies and Afro-French residents' lived experience from 1945–2018, using the oral histories of black diasporic populations in Paris to reimagine the relevance of race in contemporary French history.
Stainton, Anna Louise. "'Wir sind Geburtshelfer eines neuen Lebens': DEFA's Positive Heroes." University of Toronto, 2019.
Examines the portrayals of positive heroes in German Democratic Republic's state-owned production studio, DEFA (Deutsche Filmaktiengesellschaft) films from the late 1940s through to the early 1990s, beginning with an analysis of Kurt Maetzig's two biographical films about Ernst Thälmann.
Examines the portrayals of positive heroes in German Democratic Republic's state-owned production studio, DEFA (Deutsche Filmaktiengesellschaft) films from the late 1940s through to the early 1990s, beginning with an analysis of Kurt Maetzig's two biographical films about Ernst Thälmann.
Thirriard, Maryam. "Crafting the New Biography: Virginia Woolf, Lytton Strachey and Harold Nicolson." Aix Marseille University, 2019.
Discusses the relation between theory and practice in the work of three founders of the so-called New Biography movement.
Discusses the relation between theory and practice in the work of three founders of the so-called New Biography movement.
Tonti, Kaitlin. "Public Thoughts, Private Communication: Circulating History in Early American Women's Life-Writing, 1750–1812." Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 2019.
Analyzes early American women's life writing to demonstrate the movement between private and public spheres, affording an understanding of their agency that a solely historical analysis often underestimates.
Analyzes early American women's life writing to demonstrate the movement between private and public spheres, affording an understanding of their agency that a solely historical analysis often underestimates.
Tulk, Niki Ann. "Performing the Wound: Practicing a Feminist Theatre of Becoming." University of Colorado at Boulder, 2019.
Engages Ann Hamilton, Renée Green, and Cecilia Vicuña, multimodal performance artists who facilitate an audience-performance relationship based on ethical witnessing, outlining ways of developing a feminist poetics of performance around trauma-telling.
Engages Ann Hamilton, Renée Green, and Cecilia Vicuña, multimodal performance artists who facilitate an audience-performance relationship based on ethical witnessing, outlining ways of developing a feminist poetics of performance around trauma-telling.
Ung, Kaliane Hélène. "Ecritures blessées: Joë Bousquet, Violette Leduc, Hervé Guibert, Simone Weil." New York University, 2019.
Investigates writing about suffering as a performative act and argues that these texts function as an artificial limb when the wound becomes the epicenter of writing, offering a reassessment of agency, via self-invention, in the face of adversity.
Investigates writing about suffering as a performative act and argues that these texts function as an artificial limb when the wound becomes the epicenter of writing, offering a reassessment of agency, via self-invention, in the face of adversity.
Varela, Jennifer. "Contact, Coexistence, Conversion: Humanitarian Representations of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict." New York University, 2019.
Examines intersections of liberal humanitarianism, cultural representations, and transnational circulation in memoirs and documentary films from the contemporary post-Oslo period about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for North American/Eurozone audiences, transnational NGOs, religious organizations, and international media.
Examines intersections of liberal humanitarianism, cultural representations, and transnational circulation in memoirs and documentary films from the contemporary post-Oslo period about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for North American/Eurozone audiences, transnational NGOs, religious organizations, and international media.
Ward, LaCharles Travell. "They Left Us Dead: Anti-Black Violence, Black Evidence, and the Insistence of Black Life." Northwestern University, 2019.
Uses case studies of anti-Black violence to ask how and why certain forms of documentation and witnessing of anti-Black violence and death continue to fail as legible evidence in defense of Black people, and outlines alternative theories of Black evidence and testimony.
Uses case studies of anti-Black violence to ask how and why certain forms of documentation and witnessing of anti-Black violence and death continue to fail as legible evidence in defense of Black people, and outlines alternative theories of Black evidence and testimony.
Wells, Esther Abigail. "Reading Leadership Life Writing: A Critical-Historical Interpretation of Black Jewish Life in the Americas." Alvernia University, 2019.
Draws on conversion narratives, autobiographical and leadership theory, and black feminist thought to argue that the meaning of the leader's life provides a basis for interpreting the meaning of leadership, while it reconceives a black-Jewish imaginary.
Draws on conversion narratives, autobiographical and leadership theory, and black feminist thought to argue that the meaning of the leader's life provides a basis for interpreting the meaning of leadership, while it reconceives a black-Jewish imaginary.
Wilding, Chalcedony Bodnar. "Skeletonization, Cameraflage, Loitering: Habits of Witnessing after the Great War." The University of Chicago, 2019.
Tracks American non-combatant modes of witnessing wartime with a focus on how World War I journalistic photography used skeletonization to create the feel of flesh-witness accounts and poetic practices that constructed intimacy and immediacy.
Tracks American non-combatant modes of witnessing wartime with a focus on how World War I journalistic photography used skeletonization to create the feel of flesh-witness accounts and poetic practices that constructed intimacy and immediacy.
Wingate, Jordan M. "The Periodical Origins of the American Self." University of California, Los Angeles, 2019.
Shows how early US periodicals, the most popular form of print in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century, constructed American identity as a category distinct from nationality or US citizenship, expressing a host of local and contingent meanings instead.
Shows how early US periodicals, the most popular form of print in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century, constructed American identity as a category distinct from nationality or US citizenship, expressing a host of local and contingent meanings instead.
Wong, Yoke Hin Nicholas. "Minor-Peninsular Genres: Genealogies of Twentieth-Century Southeast Asian Chinese Writing." The University of Chicago, 2019.
Analyzes the strategies Chinese diaspora writers employ to reshape colonial and postwar modernity, as well as national and global institutional histories, in neglected, unpublished texts from minor "confessional" genres such as life writing, reportage, and interviews from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan.
Analyzes the strategies Chinese diaspora writers employ to reshape colonial and postwar modernity, as well as national and global institutional histories, in neglected, unpublished texts from minor "confessional" genres such as life writing, reportage, and interviews from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan.
Wright, Paula Ann. "Reordering Nature: Romantic Science, Natural History, and Mountaineering." University of Oregon, 2019.
Examines the various entangled fields of natural history, science, travel writing and environmental aesthetics, spanning the time period from the dawn of the "age of wonder" to the rise of the early environmental conservation movement.
Examines the various entangled fields of natural history, science, travel writing and environmental aesthetics, spanning the time period from the dawn of the "age of wonder" to the rise of the early environmental conservation movement.
Zebadúa Yáñez, Veronica A. "Projects of Freedom: Biography as Political Theory in Hannah Arendt and Simone De Beauvoir." The New School, 2019.
Uses insights gleaned from biographies about Arendt and De Beauvoir to define freedom as a multi-dimensional and multi-spatial experience of becoming.
Uses insights gleaned from biographies about Arendt and De Beauvoir to define freedom as a multi-dimensional and multi-spatial experience of becoming.
Zoanni, Tyler. "In the Image of God: Cognitive Disability and Christianity in Uganda." New York University, 2019.
Explores the lives of people with cognitive disabilities in Uganda, based on two years of ethnographic research, to argue against dominant liberal understandings that tether personhood to the possession of individualized capacity.
Explores the lives of people with cognitive disabilities in Uganda, based on two years of ethnographic research, to argue against dominant liberal understandings that tether personhood to the possession of individualized capacity.
