Confessional Politics: Women's Sexual Self-Representations in Life Writing and Popular Media
The premise of Confessional Politics is that in this confessional age, "telling all is in." From a unique variety of perspectives and angles, the essays in this collection explore the association of confession with femininity; they examine its function as a gender-specific discourse as they probe its many feminized genres and subgenres. Confessional Politics investigates the creative and strategic ways in which women shape the telling of their sexual stories in order to resist and negotiate...
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The premise of Confessional Politics is that in this confessional age, "telling all is in." From a unique variety of perspectives and angles, the essays in this collection explore the association of confession with femininity; they examine its function as a gender-specific discourse as they probe its many feminized genres and subgenres. Confessional Politics investigates the creative and strategic ways in which women shape the telling of their sexual stories in order to resist and negotiate the confessional practices designed to position them in conventional sexual frameworks.Investigating the confessional politics of traditional forms of social life writing (including erotic diaries, journals, letters, and confessional fiction), this book significantly expands its focus beyond conventional forms to include practices affecting mass readerships and audiences. The collection addresses provocative general topics: talk shows, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, sexuality, self-help books, and cross-dressing, as well as expressive works such as contemporary Canadian women's poetry, lesbian fiction, performance art, Anne Frank's recently released complete diary, and memoirs.
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1Pt. 1Body Politics and Confessional Interventions111Confessional Realities: Body-Writing and The Diary of Anne Frank132Sexuality and Textuality Entwined: Sexual Proclamations in Women's Confessional Fiction in Quebec283Parading Sexuality: Modernist Life Writing and Popular Confession47Pt. 2Sexual Trauma and Confessional Modalities634"Mi rage": The Confessional Politics of Canadian Survivor Poetry655Not in This House: Incest, Denial, and Doubt in the White Middle-Class Family816Raging in Tongues: Confession and Performance Art997TV Crisis and Confession: The Hill-Thomas Hearings117Pt. 3Negotiating Identity and Confessional Inversions1318Lesbian Confession and Case History1339B(e)aring It All: Talking about Sex and Self on Television Talk Shows14810Cross-Dressing Confessions: Men Confessing as Women167References187Contributors203Index205
