Autobiographics: A Feminist Theory of Women's Self-Representation (Reading Women Writing)

In the first comprehensive feminist critique of autobiography as a genre, Leigh Gilmore incorporates writings that have not up to now been considered part of the autobiographical tradition. Offering subtle and perceptive readings of a wide variety of texts-- from the confessions of medieval mystics to contemporary works by Chicana and lesbian writers-- she identifies an innovative practice of "autobiographics" which covers the entire spectrum of women's self-representation. This book offers a feminist critique of autobiography as a genre. Gilmore incorporates writings that have not up to now been considered part of the autobiographical tradition: from the confessions of medieval mystics to contemporary works oby Chicana and lesbian writers. The chapters include: Represent Yourself; Bastard Testimony: Illegitimacy and Incest in Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina; There Will Always Be a Father: Transference and the Auto/biographical Demand in Mikal Gilmore's Shot in the Heart; There Will Always Be a Mother: Jamaica Kincaid's Serial Autobiography; Without Names: An Anatomy of Absence in Jeanette Winterson's Written on the Body; Conclusion - the Knowing Subject and an Alternative Jurisprudence of Trauma Leigh Gilmore. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [241]-250) And Index.