These Gray Hairs Really Scream Out at me: the Confessional I and Autofiction as Feminist Writing in Gray Hairs

Abstract

This article is a practitioner reflection on confessional writing as feminist writing in my transmedia artwork Gray hairs. Gray hairs is a web-based linear narrative which unfolds through my voice (and text transcript) when readers pluck graying hairs on screen. This article gives an overview of confessional writing, autofiction and digital writing as feminist writing, and reflects on these theoretical discourses through a practitioner perspective on how these theories are and are not implicated in Gray hairs. The article concludes with a practitioner reflection that speculates on how born-digital confessional writing can and could be more aligned with feminist ideas of multiple perspectives and polyphonic voices while keeping in line with the early roots of the feminist movement through the idea that the personal is political.

Keywords

• Confessional writing
• Autofiction
• Feminist writing
• Digital writing
• Practice-based research