Stories of the Self: Life Writing after the Book (Postmillennial Pop (27))

**The importance of personal storytelling in contemporary culture and politics** In an age where our experiences are processed and filtered through a wide variety of mediums, both digital and physical, how do we tell our own story? How do we “get a life,” make sense of who we are and the way we live, and communicate that to others? __Stories of the Self__ takes the literary study of autobiography and opens it up to a broad and fascinating range of material practices beyond the book, investigating the manifold ways people are documenting themselves in contemporary culture. Anna Poletti explores Andy Warhol’s __Time Capsules__, a collection of six hundred cardboard boxes filled with text objects from the artist’s everyday life; the mid-aughts crowdsourced digital archive __PostSecret__; queer zine culture and its practices of remixing and collaging; and the bureaucratic processes surrounding surveillance dossiers. __Stories of the Self__ argues that while there is a strong emphasis on the importance of personal storytelling in contemporary culture and politics, mediation is just as important in establishing the credibility and legibility of life writing. Poletti argues that the very media used for writing our lives intrinsically shapes how we are seen to matter. ""Stories of the Self" explores life writing after the book"-- Provided by publisher