Lauren Cooper
Research title: Autotheory from Memoir to Manifestos and Zines
Research Summary
Autotheory is an emergent term being used to describe works that merge theory with autobiography. The term was popularised by the 2015 publication of Maggie Nelson’s genre-bending memoir The Argonauts and is trending in scholarship.
My research project expands the definition of autotheory, by considering its relationship with other ‘auto’ modes of writing – such as autofiction, autoethnography and autohistoria-teoría - and by posing zines and manifestos as autotheory. In particular, I explore the feminist and socio-political interventions that autotheory makes.
Publications
Cooper, L. (2021) ‘Review: Autotheory as Feminist Practice in Art, Writing, and Criticism’, Contemporary Women's Writing, https://doi.org/10.1093/cww/vpaa029
Supervisors
Conference
Conferences:
‘Life After Rape: Refusing to Die and Reconceptualising Rape Survival through Autotheory’, Afterlives, University of Glasgow Postgraduate Arts Conference, University of Glasgow (online), 1-3 June 2020
‘Women's memoir as écriture féminine: reclaiming female sexuality’, CWWA 2018 Conference: Writing Wrongs, Northumbria University, 20-21Sept 2018
Workshops:
‘Writing Autotheory’, Postgraduate Writing Workshop, University of Glasgow (online), 14 July 2020
Teaching
2020-2021 - English Literature, 1B The Novel and Narratology
Additional Information
Organisational Committees
Membership Secretary – Contemporary Women’s Writing Association
