Autotheory is a literary tradition involving the combination of the narrative forms of

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

, and

critical theory Critical theory is a social, historical, and political school of thought and philosophical perspective which centers on analyzing and challenging systemic power relations in society, arguing that knowledge, truth, and social structures are ...

. 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 Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

literary theory Literary theory is the systematic study of the nature of literature and of the methods for literary analysis. Culler 1997, p.1 Since the 19th century, literary scholarship includes literary theory and considerations of intellectual history, m ...

, social structures,

science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

and

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

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. Ralph Clare suggests autotheory is adjacent to the literary movement autofiction, but distinct in that it is a direct response and form of resistance to the institutionalization of

theory A theory is a systematic and rational form of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the conclusions derived from such thinking. It involves contemplative and logical reasoning, often supported by processes such as observation, experimentation, ...

Notable works

* Chanel Miller, ''Know My Name,'' 2019 * Sara Ahmed, ''Queer Phenomenology'', Duke University Press, 2020 * Sara Ahmed, ''Living a Feminist Life'', Duke University Press, 2017 * Seo-Young Chu, "A Refuge for Jae-in Doe: Fugues in the Key of English Major," 2017 * Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts, 2015 * Frank Wilderson III, ''Afropessimism'', Liveright, 2020 * Saidiya Hartman, ''Lose Your Mother'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008 * Saidiya Hartman, ''Venus in Two Acts'', Duke University Press, 2008 * Cathy Park Hong, ''Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning,'' 2020 * bell hooks, ''Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom,'' 1994 * Chris Kraus, ''

I Love Dick ''I Love Dick'' is an epistolary novel with autofiction elements by American artist and author Chris Kraus. It was published in 1997 by Semiotext(e). ''I Love Dick'' merges fiction and memoir formats to explore the writer's psycho-sexual o ...

'', Semiotext(e), 1997 * Paul Preciado, '' Testo Junkie'', 2008 * Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, ''A Dialogue on Love,'' 1999 * Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, ''How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective'', Haymarket Books, 2017 * Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, ''The Undocumented Americans'', One World, 2021 * Magda Cârneci, ''Fem'', 2021 * Ellen Samuels, "Six Ways of Looking At Crip Time," 2017 * Christina Sharpe, '' Ordinary Notes'', 2023 * Audre Lorde, '' The Cancer Journals'', 1980 * Audre Lorde, "Poetry Is Not A Luxury," 1985 * Audre Lorde, ''Zami: A New Spelling of My Name,'' 1982 * Gloria Anzaldúa, '' Borderlands/La Frontera'', 1987 * David Kishik, ''Self Study: Notes on the Schizoid Condition'', ICI Berlin Press, 2023 * Arianne Zwartjes, "Under the Skin: An Exploration of Autotheory," 2019

References

{{Reflist Narrative forms Literary genres