Temporalities - Jan Campbell

Autobiography has in recent years become something of a "hot topic" for cultural theory, at the centre of debates about subjectivity, history, memory, authority and ethics. Narratives of the self have materially located abstract theoretical paradigms, challenging the tenets of an anonymous post-structuralism and a decentred postmodernism.;In this text, the concept of autobiographical practice is expanded to take into consideration work on the role of the intellectual, and the areas of cultural geography, historiography and new technologies. Contibutors address key questions for the practice of autobiography: what are the consequences of replacing macro narratives of modernity with the personal micro-narratives of postmodernity, and does self-reflexivity threaten the efficacy of theory? How far can personal accounts challenge official histories, and how is authority acquired by different versions? How is autobiography constructed through, or inflected by, the environment? Is autobiography a particularly compelling medium for narratives of diasporic or nomadic existence, flux and displacement? Is the idea of the sovereign self constituted through, or challenged by, new technologies?