Sick Women, Sad Girls, and Selfie Theory: Autotheory as Contemporary Feminist Practice

How care holds humanity: the myth of Cura and theories of care

“…Often used in connection with genre-bending memoir The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson (2015) , the term ‘autotheory’ designates a literary form involving ‘the combination of autobiography and critical theory’ ( Pearl 2018, 200 ). In this article, however, I rely on the work of the Canadian artist, curator, writer and interdisciplinary researcher Fournier (2019) , who has unpacked autotheory with particular reference to illness and embodiment. Fournier describes autotheory as a specific form of academic practice:…”

“…The ‘human story’ of care relations ( eum possideat ) will necessarily entail a human story of singular actions that to some extent can only be described in first-person singular: eum possideam (I shall hold him). To explore this individual eum possideam , I try to ‘theorise from my subject position’ ( Fournier 2019, 658 ). When activating my own intimate experiences, it became clear that interpretations of my eum possideam quamdiu vixerit can refract—or even fracture—theoretical notions of care.…”

Autotheory: Toward the Embodying of Analytic Framing

“…Autotheory insists that all theory is infused with the desires of the theorizer, who herself is at least in part defined by the complex sociopolitical matrix in which she is immersed and has developed. Lauren Fournier (2018), one of the first academics to discuss it, specifies that "in autotheory as contemporary feminist practice, artists, writers, philosophers, activists, curators, and critics use the autobiographical, first person, and related practices of self-imaging to process, perform, enact, iterate, subvert, instantiate, and wrestle with hegemonic discourses of 'theory ' and philosophy" (p. 640). "To be sure," she adds, "one could argue that the entire history of feminism is autotheoretical," but she counters that this term, exploding on the scene in 2015, "seems to be breaking new ground within contemporary literary, artistic, and theoretical networks" (p. 644).…”

Performing the techno-self: Paul B. Preciado’s Testo Junkie as a twenty-first century feminist narrative

“…Preciado’s autotheory reflects the agency and lack of control he has over his body in how it is pieced together through citations, theoretical reflections, and memoir and inscribes itself within feminist cultural production that represents identities and experiences that are not otherwise considered. As Lauren Fournier (2018) explains, in autotheory, readers experience ‘modes of production that do not easily fit in to preexisting categories of genre or feminism, in a manner not unlike earlier feminist practices that experimented with the creation of new modes of writing and theorizing’ (p. 646). Autotheory writers, such as Preciado, utilise their embodiment to generate philosophy, and Preciado particularly underscores his bodily representation as both subject and object (Fournier, 2018: 646).…”

“…As Lauren Fournier (2018) explains, in autotheory, readers experience ‘modes of production that do not easily fit in to preexisting categories of genre or feminism, in a manner not unlike earlier feminist practices that experimented with the creation of new modes of writing and theorizing’ (p. 646). Autotheory writers, such as Preciado, utilise their embodiment to generate philosophy, and Preciado particularly underscores his bodily representation as both subject and object (Fournier, 2018: 646). In Testo Junkie , the reader is exposed to a trans* body that fashions subjectivity by obscuring state administration of gender and challenges categories of man/woman or subject/object, posing generative conceptions of identity.…”