New Media in Black Women’s Autobiography : Intrepid Embodiment and Narrative Innovation

Examining novelists, bloggers, and other creators of new media, this study focuses on autobiography by American black women since 1980, including Audre Lorde, Jill Nelson, and Janet Jackson. As Curtis argues, these women used embodiment as a strategy of drawing the audience into visceral identification with them and thus forestalling stereotypes. Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Whose Tools? Audre Lorde's Narrative Mastery in The Cancer Journals and Zami: A New Spelling of My Name -- 2 Naming All These Women: Jill Nelson's Portrayals in Volunteer Slavery and Straight, No Chaser -- Nelson's Life on Display -- Nelson's Early Experiences of Objectification -- Mind over Matter? Nelson's Characterization of Her Physical Life -- Nelson's Move from Object to Subject -- Nelson's Quest for Visibility on Her Own Black Woman Terms -- Conclusion -- 3 Born into This Body: Black Women's Use of Buddhism in Autobiographical Narratives -- How Three Black Women Find Buddhism -- Spotlighting Rarer Choice in Black Women's Autobiographical Choices -- Reflections on Isolation and Danger: or, What the Women Share with Other Black Women -- Conclusion -- 4 Moving on from Control: Janet Jackson's Lot Improves as She Loses the Uniform -- 5 Down a Dangerous Cyber Street: Black Women's Online Writing -- Rules of Ontology: Rules of the Internet -- The Cyber World and Black Women -- Conclusion -- 6 At Arm's Length: The Selfie, Public Personae, and Instagram Use in Young Black Women and Adolescents -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 -- Chapter 2 -- Chapter 3 -- Chapter 4 -- Chapter 5 -- Chapter 6 -- Index "Using 1980 as a starting point, Curtis explores how black women's insistence on writing embodiment into their narratives addresses and supplants images deployed against them. She argues that although many stereotypes rely on the notion that black female identity comes only from and through the body, emphasis on corporeality serves these women well. Joining somatic experience with complicated inner lives compels at least understanding and perhaps empathy. Privileging their experiences as the only road to truths about their lives succeeds across formats. Deployed by black women, new media facilitate well-executed, defiant, creative autobiographical gestures that should be considered among the most effective and innovative in their respective milieus"-- Provided by publisher With The Rapid Expansion Of The Field Of Autobiography Due To The Emergence Of New Digital Media, Black American Women Have Excelled At Expanding The Genre's Boundaries As They Address Disparaging Depictions Of Themselves. Examining Novelists, Bloggers, And Other Creators Of New Media, This Study Focuses On Autobiographies By American Black Women Since 1980, Including Audre Lorde, Jill Nelson, And Janet Jackson. New Media In Black Women's Autobiography Considers How Black Women Adopt New Media Forms To Assert Their Place As The Rightful Creators Of Their Own Image. Using 1980 As A Starting Point, Tracy Curtis Explores How Black Women's Insistence On Writing Embodiment Into Their Narratives Addresses And Supplants Images Deployed Against Them. Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction....Pages 1-14 Whose Tools? Audre Lorde’s Narrative Mastery in The Cancer Journals and Zami: A New Spelling of My Name....Pages 15-47 Naming All These Women: Jill Nelson’s Portrayals in Volunteer Slavery and Straight, No Chaser....Pages 49-86 Born into This Body: Black Women’s Use of Buddhism in Autobiographical Narratives....Pages 87-109 Moving on from Control: Janet Jackson’s Lot Improves as She Loses the Uniform....Pages 111-133 Down a Dangerous Cyber Street: Black Women’s Online Writing....Pages 135-179 At Arm’s Length: The Selfie, Public Personae, and Instagram Use in Young Black Women and Adolescents....Pages 181-196 Conclusion....Pages 197-200 Back Matter....Pages 201-226