T. Curtis

New Media in Black Women’s Autobiography: Intrepid Embodiment and Narrative Innovation T. Curtis

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.; Examining novelists, bloggers, and other creators of new media, this study focuses on autobiography by American black women since 1980, including Audre Lorde, Jill Nelson, and Janet Jackson. As Curtis argues, these women used embodiment as a strategy of drawing the audience into visceral identification with them and thus forestalling stereotypes. Table of Contents: Introduction1. Whose Tools?: Audre Lorde's Narrative Mastery in The Cancer Journals and Zami: A New Spelling of My Name2. Naming All These Women: Jill Nelson's Portrayals in Volunteer Slavery and Straight, No Chaser3. Born Into This Body: Black Women's Use of Buddhism in Autobiographical Narratives4. Moving on From Control: Janet Jackson's Lot Improves as She Loses the Uniform5. Down a Dangerous Cyber Street: Black Women's Online Writing6. At Arms' Length: The Selfie, Public Personae, and Instagram Use in Young Black Women and AdolescentsConclusionBiographical Note: Tracy Curtis is Assistant Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. Her research interest is in African American autobiography and she has two related projects: The Artist Project is about artists' creative processes and the resulting work and On Being Haunted considers shifting roles of black intellectual work in the academy, communities, and broad public contexts.