Exposing selves: Relationality and liberation in autobiography

In this dissertation, I lay bare the relationality and process of liberation in four contemporary works of autobiographical literature. Developing a new perspective on relationality and liberation in autobiography, I suggest that to autobiograph is to respond to a series of demands. Responding to each of these demands, the biographing self is somehow rendered other – never free to biograph a unified self. But as each next demand is more encompassing than the previous one, during the autobiographical process, the self is in fact liberated from what was demanded previously. Eventually, the self ends up biographed freely in and as its relation with readers. In chapter 1, I map and evaluate the use of relationality as a concept in the history of autobiography studies. In this history, relationality is generally treated as a generic trait: an autobiographical text is considered relational if it engages others beyond the autobiographer either content-wise (by thematizing the constitutive bonds of the autobiographer with these others) or formally (for instance by being written intertextually, that is, in reference to other authors). Around the turn of the millennium, autobiography scholars came to agree that each and every self (and, therefore, each and every autobiographical effort) is relational. I suggest that persisting to treat relationality as a (generic) trait results in the endorsement of an opposition between relational and non-relational autobiography and therefore forestalls treatments of relationality as inevitability in all autobiography. I then propose to, instead, conceptualize relationality as the inevitable impact of otherness on autobiographical efforts. In chapter 2, I develop a theoretical framework for the conceptualization of relationality in autobiography as the inevitable impact of otherness on unfolding autobiographical efforts. Following Judith Butler, I suggest that autobiographical efforts are initiated in a structure of address: an autobiographical effort is always asked from an autobiographer and therefore also addressed to another. Because the query for an autobiographical effort comes from a sociopolitical context in which norms for such efforts prevail, the effort is initiated in affirmative response to the demand to autobiograph normatively. While autobiographers cannot but adopt the imposed normative formats, they can in fact expose the limits of these formats, thereby laying bare that they have been initiated in response to what I conceptualize as a political demand. Following Maurice Blanchot, I then suggest that autobiographical efforts further unfold in response to a literary demand. Biographing their self as literature and nothing but literature, authors are bound to, what Blanchot calls, derealize their self – which liberates them of their previous oppression by the normative formats, be it at the cost of their reality as selves. Following Jean-Luc Nancy, I then suggest that autobiographical efforts unfold further in response to an ontological demand. Even if selves are only performed literarily, this performance cannot be said to not take place. It takes place while a reader reads the performance – thereby liberating the autobiographer’s self from its derealization by allowing it to come into being in and as its relation to this reader. In chapter 3, I analyze the relational unfolding of Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts as autobiographical effort throughout each of its three dimensions. Each of my four cases contains emblems of the book within the book that indicate the demand in response to which it was initiated as an autobiographical effort. Beginning my analysis with an interpretation of such an emblem in The Argonauts, I show how the autobiographical effort is written in response to the political demand to autobiograph autonomously, a norm that is discriminatory to women authors. I then proceed to analyze the book’s intertextuality as a response to the literary demand to derealize one’s self, which liberates Nelson from the initial demand to autobiograph autonomously. Finally, I analyze the way Nelson’s self is established in response to the ontological demand to come into being as her relation with the reader during reading. In chapter 4, I analyze the relational unfolding of Édouard Louis’ History of Violence as autobiographical effort throughout its three dimensions. Analyzing an emblem of the book as autobiographical effort within the book, I show how the effort is initiated in response to the political demand to autobiograph coherently, a norm that, we learn, has discriminatory implications for queer authors. I then proceed to analyze the book’s multi-leveled narrative set-up as a response to the literary demand to derealize one’s self, liberating Louis from the initial discriminatory demand to autobiograph coherently. Finally, I analyze the way Louis’ self is established in response to the ontological demand to emerge as its relation with readers in the act of reading. In chapter 5, I analyze the relational unfolding of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me throughout its three dimensions. Analyzing the opening scene as an emblem of the book within the book as autobiographical effort, I reconstruct how it has been initiated in response to the political demand to autobiograph representatively, a norm with discriminatory implications for Black citizens. I then proceed to analyze the book’s epistolary and apostrophic set-up as a response to the literary demand to derealize one’s self, liberating Coates from the initial discriminatory demand to autobiograph as a representative citizen. Finally, I analyze the way Coates’ self is biographed in response to the ontological demand to come into existence in and as relation with the reader during the time of reading. In chapter 6, I analyze the relational unfolding of Anne Boyer’s The Undying throughout its three dimensions. Interpreting its prologue as an emblem of the book as autobiographical effort within the book, I reconstruct its initiation in response to the political demand to claim responsibility, a norm with discriminatory implications for authors suffering from illness. I then proceed to analyze the book’s recurrent alternation between narrative agents as a response to the literary demand to derealize one’s self, liberating Boyer from the initial demand to autobiograph as the one who is responsible for her disease. Finally, I analyze the way Boyer’s self is biographed in response to the ontological demand to come into existence in and as relation with the reader.