WOMEN'S WRITING, ACTIVISM AND INTIMATE COUNTER-PUBLICS IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICA

Abstract

Contextualised against mass activist movements like #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo, I propose the rise of intimate counter-publics, groups that affectively identify through collective marginalisation and trauma. Focusing on the boom of life writing between 2014-2017, a politically precarious time for the American public, I trace how activist writers from intimate counter-publics evaded precarious disclosures and prioritised privacy. I also demonstrate how traditional “ethical” models of reading to promote empathy or identification are unsustainable. Using Claudia Rankine’s Citizen (2014), I argue that Rankine transforms readers’ reception by accustoming them to the opacity of represented subjects. My second chapter studies Roxane Gay’s Not That Bad (2017) which features a diverse collection of “dispatches” on rape culture which complicate traditional factual forms testimonial “truth”. My third text, Kristen Roupenian’s “Cat Person” (2017), evokes further concerns about privacy and begs the question of how authentic a story can be when it strays from lived experiences.