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Autotheory as feminist practice in art, writing, and criticism / Lauren Fournier.

By: Publisher: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2021]Copyright date: ©2021Description: viii, 308 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780262045568
Subject(s):
Contents:
Performing Kant: surviving philosophy through self-imaging
No theory, no cry: autotheory's economies and circulations
Citation as relation: intertextual intimacies and identifications
Performing citations and visualizing references: drawn bibliographies, sculpted theory, and other mimetic moves
J'accuse: autotheory and the feminist politics of disclosure and exposure
Autotheory in (de)colonial times
Summary: In the 2010s, the term “autotheory” began to trend in literary spheres, where it was used to describe books in which memoir and autobiography fused with theory and philosophy. In this book, Lauren Fournier extends the meaning of the term, applying it to other disciplines and practices. Fournier provides a long-awaited account of autotheory, situating it as a mode of contemporary, post-1960s artistic practice that is indebted to feminist writing, art, and activism. Investigating a series of works by writers and artists including Chris Kraus and Adrian Piper, she considers the politics, aesthetics, and ethics of autotheory. Fournier argues that the autotheoretical turn signals the tenuousness of illusory separations between art and life, theory and practice, work and the self—divisions long blurred by feminist artists and scholars. Autotheory challenges dominant approaches to philosophizing and theorizing while enabling new ways for artists and writers to reflect on their lives. She argues that Kraus's 1997 I Love Dick marked the emergence of a newly performative, post-memoir “I”; recasts Piper's 1971 performance work Food for the Spirit as autotheory; considers autotheory as critique; examines practices of citation in autotheoretical work, including Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts; and looks at the aesthetics and ethics of disclosure and exposure, exploring the nuanced feminist politics around autotheoretical practices and such movements as #MeToo. Fournier formulates autotheory as a reflexive movement, connecting thinking, making art, living, and theorizing.
Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode
Book Book CGLAS Library Blue 701 FOU (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Checked out 27/02/2025 12103

Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-299) and index.

Performing Kant: surviving philosophy through self-imaging

No theory, no cry: autotheory's economies and circulations

Citation as relation: intertextual intimacies and identifications

Performing citations and visualizing references: drawn bibliographies, sculpted theory, and other mimetic moves

J'accuse: autotheory and the feminist politics of disclosure and exposure

Autotheory in (de)colonial times

In the 2010s, the term “autotheory” began to trend in literary spheres, where it was used to describe books in which memoir and autobiography fused with theory and philosophy. In this book, Lauren Fournier extends the meaning of the term, applying it to other disciplines and practices. Fournier provides a long-awaited account of autotheory, situating it as a mode of contemporary, post-1960s artistic practice that is indebted to feminist writing, art, and activism. Investigating a series of works by writers and artists including Chris Kraus and Adrian Piper, she considers the politics, aesthetics, and ethics of autotheory.

Fournier argues that the autotheoretical turn signals the tenuousness of illusory separations between art and life, theory and practice, work and the self—divisions long blurred by feminist artists and scholars. Autotheory challenges dominant approaches to philosophizing and theorizing while enabling new ways for artists and writers to reflect on their lives. She argues that Kraus's 1997 I Love Dick marked the emergence of a newly performative, post-memoir “I”; recasts Piper's 1971 performance work Food for the Spirit as autotheory; considers autotheory as critique; examines practices of citation in autotheoretical work, including Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts; and looks at the aesthetics and ethics of disclosure and exposure, exploring the nuanced feminist politics around autotheoretical practices and such movements as #MeToo. Fournier formulates autotheory as a reflexive movement, connecting thinking, making art, living, and theorizing.