|
Autotheory
Autotheory is a literary tradition involving the combination of the narrative forms of autobiography, memoir, and critical theory. Works of autotheory involve a first-person account of an author’s life blended with research investigations. Works of autotheory might bring in broader questions in philosophy, literary theory, social structures, science and culture to interpret the politics and history within personal experiences. Discussions surrounding Paul B. Preciado's 2013 book ''Testo Junkie'' popularized the term. Lauren Fournier suggests autotheory is rooted in creative and critical practice in feminist contexts. Fournier describes autotheory as a site of resistance, where feminist writers, artists, and scholars brought political questions to bear in their own lives, in contrast to the situated distance between the writer and their subject matter or absence of the writer in their work that is prominent in academic research across disciplines. Clare suggests autotheory is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Autobiography
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English periodical ''The Monthly Review'', when he suggested the word as a hybrid, but condemned it as "pedantic". However, its next recorded use was in its present sense, by Robert Southey in 1809. Despite only being named early in the nineteenth century, first-person autobiographical writing originates in antiquity. Roy Pascal differentiates autobiography from the periodic self-reflective mode of journal or diary writing by noting that " utobiographyis a review of a life from a particular moment in time, while the diary, however reflective it may be, moves through a series of moments in time". Autobiography thus takes stock of the autobiographer's life from the moment of composition. While biographers generally rely on a wide variety of documents ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Narrative Form
Narrative forms have been subject to classification by literary theorists, in particular during the 1950s, a period which has been described metaphorically as the Linnaean period in the study of narrative. Narrative forms include: *Autobiography – a detailed description or account of the storyteller's own life. *Biography – a detailed description or account of someone's life. *Captivity narrative – a story in which the protagonist is captured and describes their experience with the culture of their captors. * Epic – a very long narrative poem, often written about a hero or heroine and their exploits. *Epic poem – a lengthy story of heroic exploits in the form of a poem. *Essay - a short literary composition that reflects the author's outlook or point *Fable – a didactic story, often using animal characters who behave like people. *Fantasy – a story about characters that may not be realistic and about events that could not really happen. *Flash fiction – a fictiona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Borderlands/La Frontera
''Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza'' is a 1987 semi-autobiographical work by Gloria E. Anzaldúa that examines the Chicano and Latino experience through the lens of issues such as gender, identity, race, and colonialism. ''Borderlands'' is considered to be Anzaldúa’s most well-known work and a pioneering piece of Chicana literature. In an interview, Anzaldúa claims to have drawn inspiration from the ethnic and social community of her youth as well as from her experiences as a woman of color in academia. Scholars also argue that Anzaldúa re-conceptualized the theory of the "mestiza" from the Chicano Movement. The term ''Borderlands'', according to Anzaldúa, refers to the geographical area that is most susceptible to la mezcla ybridity neither fully of Mexico nor fully of the United States. She also used this term to identify a growing population that cannot distinguish these invisible "borders," who instead have learned to become a part of both worlds, worlds whose c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Cancer Journals
''The Cancer Journals'' is a 1980 book of non-fiction by Audre Lorde. It deals with her struggle with breast cancer. Summary ''The Cancer Journals'' is a 1980 book of non-fiction by poet and activist Audre Lorde. It deals with her struggle with breast cancer and relates it to her strong advocacy and identity in certain social issues such as lesbian, civil rights, and feminist issues. ''The Cancer Journals'' consists of an introduction and three chapters, each featuring passages from her diary. Audre Lorde's upbringing and background plays a key role in understanding her perspectives and passion about feminist, civil rights, and lesbian issues. Understanding the early developments of her life and her journey to writing poetry, leads to a better understanding of her work on ''The Cancer Journals'' and its significance. Apart from the story Lorde tells in her book, it is also essential to understand her experience with cancer apart from the literary work. Her cancer battle serves as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ordinary Notes
''Ordinary Notes'' is a book by Christina Sharpe, published in April 2023 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The book is a collection of 248 notes about black life. It was shortlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Nonfiction. The book received positive reviews by writers for ''Kirkus Reviews'', '' The New York Times'', and others. Sharpe previously published ''In the Wake: On Blackness and Being'' in 2016, and as of 2023, she is the chair of black studies at York University. Contents Among its 248 notes are recollections of the presidency of Barack Obama; a discussion of Obama's response to the Charleston church shooting; an anecdote at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice; a discussion of Roland Barthes's ''Camera Lucida''; and an analysis of a character in Toni Morrison's ''Beloved''. Reception The book received a positive review by Brendan Buck in ''Newcity'', who praised Sharpe's writing as "not just personal or academic" but using an "inventive form" to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I Love Dick
''I Love Dick'' is a novel by American artist and author Chris Kraus. Published by Semiotext(e) in 1997, ''I Love Dick'' merges fiction and memoir formats to explore the writer's psycho-sexual obsession with the eponymous "Dick", a media theorist and sociologist whose last name is never given over the course of the text, despite other art world personalities appearing as themselves. Critics hailed it as both "radical" and "gossipy" and the book continues to be an interdisciplinary point of reference for writers, artists, art historians and theorists. The book announced Kraus' particular brand of "confessional literature" that she herself described as "lonely girl phenomenology". The writer Rick Moody called it, "one of the most explosive, revealing, lacerating and unusual memoirs ever committed to the page". Later identified as Dick Hebdige, "Dick"'s sporadic presence in Chris's life changes her thinking about her marriage (to philosopher and Semiotext(e) founder Sylvère Lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Argonauts
''The Argonauts'' is a book by poet and critic Maggie Nelson, published in 2015. It mixes philosophical theory with memoir. The book discusses her romantic relationship with the transgender artist Harry Dodge leading to her pregnancy as well as topics ranging from the death of a parent, transgender embodiment, academia, familial relationships, and the limitations of language. Nelson also explores and criticizes ideas from several philosophers including Gilles Deleuze, Judith Butler and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. The title is a reference to Roland Barthes' idea that to love someone is similar to an Argonaut who constantly replaces parts of their ship without the ship changing names. The book won a National Book Critics Circle Award The National Book Critics Circle Awards are a set of annual American literary awards by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) to promote "the finest books and reviews published in English". [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Autofiction
In literary criticism, autofiction is a form of fictionalized autobiography. Autofiction combines two mutually inconsistent narrative forms, namely autobiography and fiction. An author may decide to recount their life in the third person, to modify significant details and characters, using fictive subplots and imagined scenarios with real life characters in the service of a search for self. In this way, autofiction shares similarities with the Bildungsroman as well as the New Narrative movement and has parallels with faction, a genre devised by Truman Capote to describe his novel '' In Cold Blood''. Autofiction is a genre of literature which includes New Narrative, amongst others. Serge Doubrovsky coined the term in 1977 with reference to his novel ''Fils''. However, autofiction arguably existed as an intergeneric practice with ancient roots long before Doubrovsky coined the term. Michael Skafidas argues that the first-person narrative can be traced back to the confessional ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tylor, Edward. (1871). Primitive Culture. Vol 1. New York: J.P. Putnam's Son Culture is often originated from or attributed to a specific region or location. Humans acquire culture through the learning processes of enculturation and socialization, which is shown by the diversity of cultures across societies. A cultural norm codifies acceptable conduct in society; it serves as a guideline for behavior, dress, language, and demeanor in a situation, which serves as a template for expectations in a social group. Accepting only a monoculture in a social group can bear risks, just as a single species can wither in the face of environmental change, for lack of functional responses to the change. Thus in military culture, valor is counted ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Testo Junkie
''Testo Junkie'' (published in English with the subtitle ''Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics in The Pharmacopornographic Era'') is a book, described as "auto-theory", by contemporary writer and philosopher Paul B. Preciado, first published in Spanish in 2008 (''Testo yonqui'' / Espasa Calpe), then in English in 2013 by The Feminist Press, translated by Bruce Benderson. It chronicles Preciado's multifaceted and liminal experience taking a topical testosterone called Testogel as a political and performative act, while working in Paris, France, as well as intertwining perspectives on pharmaceuticals and pornography. The book was the choice of McKenzie Wark in a list of the 11 best scholarly books of the 2010s by '' The Chronicle of Higher Education.'' Outline and concept Preciado declares that Testo Junkie is a "body- essay", and writes of his use of testosterone as a way of undoing gender inscribed on the body by the capitalistic commodification and mobilization of sexuality and reprod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for scientific reasoning is tens of thousands of years old. The earliest written records in the history of science come from Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3000 to 1200 Common Era, BCE. Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the Universe, physical world based on natural causes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of History of science in classical antiquity, Greek conceptions of the world deteriorated in Western Europe during the early centuries (400 to 1000 CE) of the Middle Ages, but was preserved in the Muslim world during the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Structures
In the social sciences, social structure is the aggregate of patterned social arrangements in society that are both emergent from and determinant of the actions of individuals. Likewise, society is believed to be grouped into structurally related groups or sets of roles, with different functions, meanings, or purposes. Examples of social structure include family, religion, law, economy, and class. It contrasts with "social system", which refers to the parent structure in which these various structures are embedded. Thus, social structures significantly influence larger systems, such as economic systems, legal systems, political systems, cultural systems, etc. Social structure can also be said to be the framework upon which a society is established. It determines the norms and patterns of relations between the various institutions of the society. Since the 1920s, the term has been in general use in social science, especially as a variable whose sub-components needed to be dis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
