AUTOBIOGRAPHY AS A POLITICAL STRATEGY

Vinshy Rosemary Saban

Lecturer,

Baselius College, kottayam, Kerala

Mobile: 9400896528,

e-mail id: vinshysaban@gmail.com

Abstract: 

The contemporary recognition of autobiography is that it is a constructed narrative of the self. There have been several instances in history when a person has been “represented” to the world through defective voices from the hegemonic realm of our society. Autobiography is a medium through which one can freely talk about one’s self in a much more democratic way. And for those, especially women, who were forced to surrender their self for epochs and centuries, autobiography can definitely be a powerful political strategy to construct their selves.

This paper is an attempt to analyze how autobiography as a genre becomes a political strategy. These narratives of self-discovery explore not only the diverse experiences of women, but also allow for the creation of subjectivities that might be able to resist the patriarchal matrix. By resorting to the political strategy of asserting themselves through the genre of autobiography these women become the architects of their own lives. Autobiography is thus not just recollection or celebration of life, but it is indeed a political strategy to assert their selves and mark themselves in history.

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