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Writing the Self

The act of implicating the self in writing is by no means a young tradition, though Leigh Gilmore in her introduction, points out that is it a tradition framed as neutral, and is deserving of feminist interrogation. This can be said for the multiple notebooks and musings on life with the presence of the possessive “I” that have been published throughout history (I’m thinking here of Benjamin Franklin’s memoirs that we had to read in high school). Specifically, the established genre of Autobiography (which is relatively new) requires a specific interrogation due to its constructed relation to Truth.

The established genre of autobiography can be classified as a distinctly modernist project. Gilmore says,

“Autobiographies perform powerful ideological work - they have assimilated political agendas, fostered the doctrine of individualism, and have participated in the construction and codification of gendered personhood.” (Gilmore, p 10)

Gilmore is referring to the codes of masculinity woven into the Autobiographical tradition. Some codes include a pattern of coherence and unity, told from the perspective of a hero figure who serves as a “representative man” to illustrate an era.

Though women have often written with the presence of the possessive “I”, a cultural master narrative has ghettoed these writings into a homelier context; men write Autobiographies, while women write diaries and letters, lacking the authority needed to state things ‘as it happened’. (Gilmore, 1994) Yet another struggle for women’s self representational writings is the perception of women as deceitful, hysteric, and clouded by volatile emotion, Finally, there is the perpetual objectification of women, both as sex object and fixture of domesticity. Woman, in writing about herself, becomes “the agent and subject of self representation” (Gilmore, 2001).

Women and other groups disempowered by modernist master narratives have been and continue to write against the traditional of Autobiography, rejecting conventional form while coming closer to the essential questions of self representation. We interrogate the construction of our lives as minor and our personhood as mere “extras” and plot points in some male hero’s grand journey. As Gilmore states, the possibilities of womens self representational writings are linked to the politics of representation; signifying through lack of visibility and creating stories about being left out of them (Gilmore, 1994). In this way, self representational writing is a mode for us to become speaking subjects who illuminate suppressed histories and stand for others so that a collective experience is voiced, heard, and memorialized.

A contemporary example of the experimental possibilities when playing with form, theory and self representation is called Reflexively Queer Autoethnography. In their cooperative paper that reads more like a poem than anything else, Tony E. Adams and Stacy Holman Jones describe this practice as “stories...that tell and don’t tell about bodies literally affecting one another. Human bodies, discursive bodies, and bodies of thought.” The autoethnographic component in Reflexively Queer Autoethnography is focused on

“sharing politicized, practical and cultural stories that resonate with others… motivating [them] to share [their stories]; bearing witness, together, to the possibilities wrought in telling.”

(Adams and Jones, p 111)

Another contemporary example of the experimental possibilities of self representation is the collections of lyric essays/poems/stories from Kazim Ali’s Bright Felon. I understand the structure of Ali’s book as fragmented, but appropriately so. The very fragmented form of this book enhances the theme of fragmented home and subjectivity that Ali conveys in his stories.

Adams, Tony E., and Jones, Stacy Holman. “Telling Stories: Reflexivity, Queer Theory, and Autoethnography.” Cultural Studies Critical Methodologies 11, no. 2 (2011): 108 -116.

Ali, Kazim. Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2009. Print.

Gilmore, Leigh. Autobiographics: A Feminist Theory of Women's Self-representation. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1994. Print.

Gilmore, Leigh. The Limits of Autobiography: Trauma and Testimony. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2001. Print.

-Marielle

#BLOGPOST1 #Autobiographics #reflection

2015 was a pivotal year, full of new considerations, realizations, and follow-throughs... perhaps the biggest one being the decision to part with New York City (at least, for a while). Although definitely not the most exciting year in my life, it was a necessary one that set the stage for creative feats in 2016 and beyond. -- Video edit by Jay Kaslo, featuring all pics/vids taken with iPhone 5S and iPhone 6S in 2015. Music: "Baby Run" by CyberSDF -- http://soundcloud.com/cybersdf

Aries 2015 Horoscope

Was glad to read THIS and find it right in line with how I'm feeling these days and my optimism for 2015.

Some highlights...

You'll be reconnecting with your childlike spirit more than ever before. This is the year to get back in touch with your strength so that your inner kid feels totally safe and free to express with wild abandon. Creativity and work has never felt so compelling and rewarding as it will this year -- especially during the second half of the year.

You're truly breaking patterns and coming out of major stagnation this year. If you've ever wanted to know what it's like to be fearless, this is your year to experience that power of total not-giving-a-damn power. You're stepping into the fiery fierceness of your most authentic self this year, Aries! Own it! Live it! Love it!

You may be taking a hiatus from putting too much emphasis on your love life until spring, and there's nothing wrong with that. Of course, you're one of the most romantic signs of the zodiac, so this probably means you will put 60 instead of 90 percent of your attention on romance at the start of the year (at least until March).

This is is your year to integrate your self-expression and creativity into your career for maximum joy, abundance and happiness all around. You're going to go far, Aries, and you can thank your fabulous mentors for that this year!

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