In Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man Mirja Maria Thiel tells the life of Fritz Dressler (1937-2020), a former professional photographer and university professor, who suffered from Alzheimer’s the last years of his life. Photographed over the course of more than two years, the black and white series is completely committed to the emotional reality of the charismatic protagonist. Dressler found immense pleasure and pride in himself by falling back on taking pictures himself. Adding some of his longing color images of his immediate surroundings, above all landscape and cloud images, as well as quotes by him gives the affected protagonist a voice and transforms this series into some kind of collaborative narrative which it has been in so many ways. The work intends to inspire a compassionate dialogue in society about issues concerning more respect, participation and empowerment towards people affected with Alzheimer’s and dementia.
{"title":"Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man (2016-2018)","authors":"Mirja Maria Thiel","doi":"10.21827/ejlw.11.38399","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.11.38399","url":null,"abstract":"In Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man Mirja Maria Thiel tells the life of Fritz Dressler (1937-2020), a former professional photographer and university professor, who suffered from Alzheimer’s the last years of his life. Photographed over the course of more than two years, the black and white series is completely committed to the emotional reality of the charismatic protagonist. Dressler found immense pleasure and pride in himself by falling back on taking pictures himself. Adding some of his longing color images of his immediate surroundings, above all landscape and cloud images, as well as quotes by him gives the affected protagonist a voice and transforms this series into some kind of collaborative narrative which it has been in so many ways. The work intends to inspire a compassionate dialogue in society about issues concerning more respect, participation and empowerment towards people affected with Alzheimer’s and dementia.","PeriodicalId":106040,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Life Writing","volume":"19 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125279203","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The first two decades of the twenty-first century have seen a plethora of writers, who have challenged and expanded previous notions of feminist life writing. In Contemporary Feminist Life-Writing: The New Audacity, Jennifer Cooke identifies works by thirteen contemporary writers as examples of what she refers to as a new audacity in life writing. Several of these writers are young, early in their careers, and already connected with each other through reviewers or publishers. Defining audacity as a ‘public challenge to conventions, characterized by a disregard for decorum, protocol, or moral restraints,’ Cooke refers to the thirteen writers as feminists, even when they do not directly engage with politics. Unlike their predecessors, she clarifies further, these writers are writing in the wake of queer, gender and trauma theory, and post-structural critiques of binary thinking. They view identity as social constructions manifested both materially and bodily. Through the perspectives that these writers offer on their lives and the experimental form their writing takes, Cooke argues, they are reshaping feminism and its concerns.
{"title":"Jennifer Cooke, Contemporary Feminist Life-Writing: The New Audacity","authors":"Malin Lidström Brock","doi":"10.21827/ejlw.11.38362","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.11.38362","url":null,"abstract":"The first two decades of the twenty-first century have seen a plethora of writers, who have challenged and expanded previous notions of feminist life writing. In Contemporary Feminist Life-Writing: The New Audacity, Jennifer Cooke identifies works by thirteen contemporary writers as examples of what she refers to as a new audacity in life writing. Several of these writers are young, early in their careers, and already connected with each other through reviewers or publishers. Defining audacity as a ‘public challenge to conventions, characterized by a disregard for decorum, protocol, or moral restraints,’ Cooke refers to the thirteen writers as feminists, even when they do not directly engage with politics. Unlike their predecessors, she clarifies further, these writers are writing in the wake of queer, gender and trauma theory, and post-structural critiques of binary thinking. They view identity as social constructions manifested both materially and bodily. Through the perspectives that these writers offer on their lives and the experimental form their writing takes, Cooke argues, they are reshaping feminism and its concerns.","PeriodicalId":106040,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Life Writing","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"117073763","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This volume, emerging from a conference, brings into conversation research on the two title-words autofiction and utopia. It focuses on what the introduction defines as the point of convergence of these genres or writing modes: the desire to shape reality according to one’s individual vision, which, the editors note, can serve as critical commentary on society (1). In exploring this intersection, the volume takes up an important strand in the discussion on autofiction, namely the one about its potential functions both for individual authors and for society more broadly. Autofiction has been argued to not only allow individuals to express and transform themselves, but also to, for example, empower author and readers with narrative agency by challenging dominant cultural narrative models (Meretoja 2021) and work towards post-conflict reconciliation (Dix 2021).
{"title":"Yvonne Delhey, Rolf Parr and Kerstin Wilhelms (eds.), Autofiktion als Utopie // Autofiction as Utopia","authors":"A. Effe","doi":"10.21827/ejlw.10.38169","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.10.38169","url":null,"abstract":"This volume, emerging from a conference, brings into conversation research on the two title-words autofiction and utopia. It focuses on what the introduction defines as the point of convergence of these genres or writing modes: the desire to shape reality according to one’s individual vision, which, the editors note, can serve as critical commentary on society (1). In exploring this intersection, the volume takes up an important strand in the discussion on autofiction, namely the one about its potential functions both for individual authors and for society more broadly. Autofiction has been argued to not only allow individuals to express and transform themselves, but also to, for example, empower author and readers with narrative agency by challenging dominant cultural narrative models (Meretoja 2021) and work towards post-conflict reconciliation (Dix 2021).","PeriodicalId":106040,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Life Writing","volume":"3 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132248002","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Biographies for children have always been popular among young readers, but they are becoming an increasingly important part of children’s literature in the twenty-first century. Most prominent are the collections offering short life-sketches of historical and contemporary figures who can serve as positive role models for young readers from diverse backgrounds. This article discusses the international bestseller Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Tales of Extraordinary Women (2016) from a feminist, transnational perspective. Focusing on the authors’ narrative strategies, it investigates how tropes of agency are used to make aware of women’s struggles and successes across time and space. Further, it examines how girls are actively encouraged to continue these legacies. Ultimately, the analysis shows that Goodnight Stories establishes connections between women from diverse countries and continents, and at the same time reveals cross-cultural differences in how the book has been received in different corners of the world.
{"title":"New Female Role Models from Around the World: Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls","authors":"M. Rensen","doi":"10.21827/ejlw.10.38167","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.10.38167","url":null,"abstract":"Biographies for children have always been popular among young readers, but they are becoming an increasingly important part of children’s literature in the twenty-first century. Most prominent are the collections offering short life-sketches of historical and contemporary figures who can serve as positive role models for young readers from diverse backgrounds. This article discusses the international bestseller Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Tales of Extraordinary Women (2016) from a feminist, transnational perspective. Focusing on the authors’ narrative strategies, it investigates how tropes of agency are used to make aware of women’s struggles and successes across time and space. Further, it examines how girls are actively encouraged to continue these legacies. Ultimately, the analysis shows that Goodnight Stories establishes connections between women from diverse countries and continents, and at the same time reveals cross-cultural differences in how the book has been received in different corners of the world.","PeriodicalId":106040,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Life Writing","volume":"12 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133504452","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tattoos and children’s literature seem to have little in common, but they come together in the form of children’s literature tattoos, which I argue in this article to be a new form of life narrative. A lot of literary tattoos are inspired by children’s literature such as the Harry Potter-series and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Despite being inspired by a literary work, the tattoos function as personal memoirs of childhood as well as a reflection of the tattooees’ hopes for the future and who they want to become. I empirically study these children’s literature tattoos as life narratives by combining three data sets: blogs with personal stories related to literary tattoos, an online questionnaire about the meaning of children’s literature tattoos for tattooees themselves, and semi-structured interviews. Based on my research, I argue that children’s literature tattoos tell personal stories about the tattooees and their lives and can thus be considered a form of life narrative. Children’s literature tattoos narrate what someone has been through, what someone likes, but most of all the things that shape the person and that they hope will continue to shape them in the future.
{"title":"Tattoos Tell Stories: Children’s Literature Tattoos as a Form of Life Narrative","authors":"Marjolein Breems","doi":"10.21827/ejlw.10.37959","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.10.37959","url":null,"abstract":"Tattoos and children’s literature seem to have little in common, but they come together in the form of children’s literature tattoos, which I argue in this article to be a new form of life narrative. A lot of literary tattoos are inspired by children’s literature such as the Harry Potter-series and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Despite being inspired by a literary work, the tattoos function as personal memoirs of childhood as well as a reflection of the tattooees’ hopes for the future and who they want to become. I empirically study these children’s literature tattoos as life narratives by combining three data sets: blogs with personal stories related to literary tattoos, an online questionnaire about the meaning of children’s literature tattoos for tattooees themselves, and semi-structured interviews. Based on my research, I argue that children’s literature tattoos tell personal stories about the tattooees and their lives and can thus be considered a form of life narrative. Children’s literature tattoos narrate what someone has been through, what someone likes, but most of all the things that shape the person and that they hope will continue to shape them in the future.","PeriodicalId":106040,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Life Writing","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127797249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Duet met valse noten (1983) started as a diary when Bart Moeyaert was twelve years old. After it was disclosed by an older brother, Moeyaert rewrote it during his teenage years as a novel about first love. This article studies the genesis and early reception of Moeyaert’s novel to reflect on young authors who fictionalize real-life experiences and desires. On the one hand, they are credited for being experts on youth and said to have a particular appeal to young audiences for that reason. On the other hand, when texts by young authors are published, they are often edited and mediated by adult professionals. For some scholars, such adult intervention compromises the authenticity of the young author’s voice, while others argue that having your work revised is an inherent part of being published. The genesis of Duet met valse noten displays a complex interaction involving several actors, including young voices. The deletion of controversial passages (a toilet scene, the longing for cigarettes and sexual scenes) illustrates this complexity: the decision to adapt them was only in part governed by adults, and while the young Moeyaert was dissatisfied with some revisions, they also contributed to his aesthetics as a poetic rather than explicit writer.
{"title":"Writing when Young: Bart Moeyaert as a Young Adult Author","authors":"V. Joosen","doi":"10.21827/ejlw.10.38163","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.10.38163","url":null,"abstract":"Duet met valse noten (1983) started as a diary when Bart Moeyaert was twelve years old. After it was disclosed by an older brother, Moeyaert rewrote it during his teenage years as a novel about first love. This article studies the genesis and early reception of Moeyaert’s novel to reflect on young authors who fictionalize real-life experiences and desires. On the one hand, they are credited for being experts on youth and said to have a particular appeal to young audiences for that reason. On the other hand, when texts by young authors are published, they are often edited and mediated by adult professionals. For some scholars, such adult intervention compromises the authenticity of the young author’s voice, while others argue that having your work revised is an inherent part of being published. The genesis of Duet met valse noten displays a complex interaction involving several actors, including young voices. The deletion of controversial passages (a toilet scene, the longing for cigarettes and sexual scenes) illustrates this complexity: the decision to adapt them was only in part governed by adults, and while the young Moeyaert was dissatisfied with some revisions, they also contributed to his aesthetics as a poetic rather than explicit writer.","PeriodicalId":106040,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Life Writing","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121046989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Helma van Lierop-Debrauwer, J. Mcveigh, M. Soeting
On 24 and 25 October 2019, a conference on life writing for young readers took place at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. This conference was organised by Helma van Lierop, Jane McVeigh and Monica Soeting. The main issue of the conference was that of boundaries with respect to authorship and readership in life writing.
2019年10月24日至25日，一场针对年轻读者的生活写作会议在荷兰蒂尔堡大学举行。这次会议是由Helma van Lierop, Jane McVeigh和Monica Soeting组织的。会议的主要议题是关于作者和读者在生活写作的界限。
{"title":"Beyond Boundaries. Authorship and Readership in Life Writing: Introduction","authors":"Helma van Lierop-Debrauwer, J. Mcveigh, M. Soeting","doi":"10.21827/ejlw.10.38160","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.10.38160","url":null,"abstract":"On 24 and 25 October 2019, a conference on life writing for young readers took place at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. This conference was organised by Helma van Lierop, Jane McVeigh and Monica Soeting. The main issue of the conference was that of boundaries with respect to authorship and readership in life writing.","PeriodicalId":106040,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Life Writing","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126073201","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines some of Greta Thunberg’s life writing as an example of the creativity and ingenuity with which some young people engage with the identity category of ‘youth’ in their life writing. It argues that Thunberg’s activism uses personal testimony in order to amplify expertise testimony as an epistemic source that demands action on climate change. This strategic use of life writing produces a paradoxical, but seemingly effective, form of life writing in which Thunberg provides personal testimony to the future. The article analyses how this paradoxical form of testimony is produced by situating Thunberg’s life writing in the context of the social and political investment in youth as an identity genre central to understanding of the human life course, and to how political responsibility is figured in contemporary western democracies. Drawing on theories of new media as an affective site in which life unfolds, rather than being represented, the paper concludes by reflecting on how Wendy Chun’s argument that networks involve the twinning of habituation and crisis mirrors Thunberg’s argument that action on climate change demands that habitual ways of living and acting must be rethought in response to the climate crisis.
{"title":"Youth Life Writing, Networked Media, Climate Change: The Challenge of Testimony to the Future","authors":"Anna Poletti","doi":"10.21827/ejlw.10.38166","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.10.38166","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines some of Greta Thunberg’s life writing as an example of the creativity and ingenuity with which some young people engage with the identity category of ‘youth’ in their life writing. It argues that Thunberg’s activism uses personal testimony in order to amplify expertise testimony as an epistemic source that demands action on climate change. This strategic use of life writing produces a paradoxical, but seemingly effective, form of life writing in which Thunberg provides personal testimony to the future. The article analyses how this paradoxical form of testimony is produced by situating Thunberg’s life writing in the context of the social and political investment in youth as an identity genre central to understanding of the human life course, and to how political responsibility is figured in contemporary western democracies. Drawing on theories of new media as an affective site in which life unfolds, rather than being represented, the paper concludes by reflecting on how Wendy Chun’s argument that networks involve the twinning of habituation and crisis mirrors Thunberg’s argument that action on climate change demands that habitual ways of living and acting must be rethought in response to the climate crisis.","PeriodicalId":106040,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Life Writing","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124842002","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Immobile during the Coronavirus pandemic, I question the PhD I am currently working on because it focuses on life writing about frequent international migration in childhood. Feeling stuck and disheartened, I look for a little ray of hope in order to escape my Covid-19 limbo. Thinking about how the life writers I am studying would deal with recounting the past experiences of my mobile family, through this Creative Matters piece, I ultimately win endurance and optimism by telling my parents’ story of conquering love beyond boundaries.
{"title":"A Victorious Roman Holiday: Life Writing and Loving Beyond Boundaries","authors":"Jessica Sanfilippo-Schulz","doi":"10.21827/ejlw.10.38168","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.10.38168","url":null,"abstract":"Immobile during the Coronavirus pandemic, I question the PhD I am currently working on because it focuses on life writing about frequent international migration in childhood. Feeling stuck and disheartened, I look for a little ray of hope in order to escape my Covid-19 limbo. Thinking about how the life writers I am studying would deal with recounting the past experiences of my mobile family, through this Creative Matters piece, I ultimately win endurance and optimism by telling my parents’ story of conquering love beyond boundaries.","PeriodicalId":106040,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Life Writing","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129431306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article investigates the impact of digital technologies on the production of life writing texts and media for and by young adults. Five categories in total are examined: (i) Fan Fiction, (ii) life simulator games, (iii) SNS (social networking sites), (iv) VR (virtual reality) documentaries and (v) Webtoons. The article begins by synthesising numerous critical studies on children’s and digital life writing, before analysing two IVR (immersive virtual reality) documentaries in depth. It concludes by discussing the relationship between these on-the-go, online and immersive VR modes and fantasised futures, narratives of extremity and the slice of life genre.
{"title":"Virtual Reality Life Writing and Young Adult Media Practice","authors":"Hannah Fleming","doi":"10.21827/ejlw.10.38161","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.10.38161","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates the impact of digital technologies on the production of life writing texts and media for and by young adults. Five categories in total are examined: (i) Fan Fiction, (ii) life simulator games, (iii) SNS (social networking sites), (iv) VR (virtual reality) documentaries and (v) Webtoons. The article begins by synthesising numerous critical studies on children’s and digital life writing, before analysing two IVR (immersive virtual reality) documentaries in depth. It concludes by discussing the relationship between these on-the-go, online and immersive VR modes and fantasised futures, narratives of extremity and the slice of life genre.","PeriodicalId":106040,"journal":{"name":"European Journal of Life Writing","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131312775","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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