Sarah Ray Rondot “Radical Epistemologies in 21st Century Trans* Life Writing”
[email protected]
“Radical Epistemologies in 21st Century Trans* Life Writing”
“Life Writing” – expansive genre that includes autobiography, memoir, essay, photography, documentary, video diary, blog, speech, art, etc. Trans*-identified: An umbrella term
describing those who refuse to tailor their looks and actions (their gender signifiers) to conventional categories, those who do not identify with their assigned sex (based on genitals at birth), and those who are “read” by others as a sex different from their assigned sex.
Epistemology: how we know what we know; knowledges shared by a particular culture
Questions How
do cultural conceptions of gender and bodies ” inform how trans* folks narrate their lives? Are dominant narratives less political? How are idealized trans* narratives written on and in the body in ways that one cannot easily shed?
“Traditional” Understandings of Autobiography Women’s
autobiographies are “relational” Men’s autobiographies are “autonomous” Trans*
autobiographies constitute a paradox or multiplicity of both
I
argue that these distinctions cannot account for how trans* life writers demonstrate the social through the personal and use the body to talk about the soul.
Trans* Body-Biography A
method and genre that more complexly and thoroughly explains an individual’s life path, behaviors, beliefs, and experiences in relation to hir body trajectory. It connects how an individual feels about hir body to how ze relates to the world at large, other people, and socio-political systems.
Pathology of trans* identity The
“patient” receives several years of therapy Diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder or Gender Dysphoria Letters of Recommendation Agreement to live as the “opposite” sex thereafter
“TransEuphoric” Vlogs: Documen7ng Gender Transi7ons on YouTube
BODYWORK
Bodywork
Why focus on the body? Susanna Egan argues that “the body resists current cultural no@ons that the self is cons@tuted en@rely in language and in text. In part, some resolu@on of the body-‐mind dualism results from a cultural paradigm shiH that revalorizes the body as a significant component of iden@ty” (5). Sky's Channel Overview
The body as a “situa@on,” both product and producer of gender
“Stories are told, and each of these expands our understanding of iden@ty a liSle more and beSer. Every one of them—every new story, every new word—creates a kind of opportunity to see ourselves anew.” S. Bear Bergman, The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You
