Permeable Constructedness Exploring Multi-Discursive Subjectivity in Three Experimental Autobiographies

Date of Award

2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Wallace, Miriam

Keywords

Autobiography, Subjectivity, Postmodern, Experimental

Area of Concentration

British and American Literature

Abstract

This thesis explores three experimental autobiographies by women. I argue that Lyn Hejinian, Anne Carson, and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha prove that the notion of a unified autobiographical �I� is a fiction. Instead, their works propose that the autobiographical subject is, as Betty Bergland has argued, �a dynamic subject that changes over time, is situated historically in the world and positioned in multiple discourses.� The first chapter uses Lyn Hejinian�s My Life to raise three of experimental autobiography�s major concerns: that autobiography is more artificial than �natural�; that writing, not experience, creates the autobiographical subject; and that postmodern identity is hybrid and multi-discursive. The second chapter argues that Theresa Cha's Dict�e is a revisionist project that combines both the epic and the lyric voice to avoid simple nationalism and emphasize the importance of the subjective. The final chapter highlights how Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red improves upon both the postmodern and Romantic traditions of self-formation to create a text which is lyrically beautiful, intellectually complex, and politically engaged.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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