Auto/bio/graphy – every component of this term is being challenged by posthumanism: the auto– in autobiography is seen as an instance of auto-affection, which relies on an inappropriable (inhuman) other. The bio- in autobiography is exposed to the challenge as to what constitutes the biological element in every narration of a “life” (subjective or objective genitive?); finally, the question of writing in autobiography is being raised again with more urgency by new forms and media of inscription.
I have investigated some of these paradoxical aspects of autpbiography in connection with the idea of:
- nonhuman subjects of autobiographies: “Posthumanism, Subjectivity Autobiography, Subjectivity 6 (2012), special guest-edited issue on “Posthumanist Subjectivities”, eds Stefan Herbrechter & Ivan Callus: 327-47. Pre-publication version here.
- bilingualism: “Auto/bi(o)/graphy”, in: Fiction and Autobiography: Modes and Models of Interaction, eds. Sabine Coelsch-Foisner and Wolfgang Görtschacher, Salzburg Studies in English Literature and Culture 3, Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang, 2006, pp. 315-326. Pre-publication version here.
