Feminine Singular: Women Growing Up through Life-Writing in the Luso-Hispanic World ed. by María José Blanco and Claire Williams

Nuria Capdevila-Argüelles

doi:10.1353/mlr.2022.0029

Feminine Singular: Women Growing Up through Life-Writing in the Luso-Hispanic World by Maria-José Blanco Claire Williams

Portuguese Studies ◽

10.1353/port.2019.0001 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 35 (2) ◽

pp. 244-246

Author(s):

Deborah Madden

Keyword(s):

Life Writing ◽

Growing Up

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The Romanian “Latchkey Generation” writes back: Memory genres of post-communism on Facebook

Memory Studies ◽

10.1177/1750698017709869 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 12 (2) ◽

pp. 164-183 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Codruţa Alina Pohrib

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Life Writing ◽

Growing Up ◽

Discursive Strategies ◽

Generational Identity ◽

Communist Past ◽

Post Communism ◽

Memory Practices ◽

Facebook Pages

Since the 2000s an alternative engagement with the communist past has emerged across media in Romania in the shape of a generational discourse, which negotiates a post-communist generational identity for individuals growing up in the 1970s–1980s. This article focuses on the online memory practices of this self-dubbed “latchkey generation” by investigating an emerging life writing genre—the Facebook generatiography—and its reliance on the archiving of communist memorabilia in the shape of photographed objects. How do generational frames of remembrance, members of a specific generation, and the sociotechnical affordances of Facebook pages intra-act to produce this genre? And what does it “do” in the context of post-communist Romania? This article sets about answering these questions while arguing for the renewed need to think about generations as generically actualized discursive strategies in the age of social media.

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Waving at Soldiers

European Journal of Life Writing ◽

10.5463/ejlw.4.158 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. C7-C18

Author(s):

Heather Richardson

Keyword(s):

Northern Ireland ◽

Life Writing ◽

Growing Up ◽

Northern Irish ◽

Family Stories ◽

Life And Death ◽

The Troubles ◽

Car Crash ◽

The Family ◽

First Time

For most writers the first experience of narrative comes from within the family. Facts, opinions, distortions and – very occasionally – truth, are shaped into family stories. A first-time memoirist such as myself has to acknowledge her own unreliability as a narrator, and must unpick real from false memory, the accidently misremembered from the downright lie. In this piece I chart the uncomfortable experience of remembering and writing about growing up during the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’, focusing on the life and death of my Aunt’s husband. He was a British soldier serving in Northern Ireland during the worst years of the Troubles in the early 70s and latterly a constable in the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). From their peculiar wedding in my parents’ front room to his death in a car crash five years later, exploring his story has confronted me with the long-denied impact of the Northern Irish conflict on my practice as a writer and teacher of creative writing. This article was submitted to the European Journal of Life Writing on 20 April 2015 and published on 19 July 2015.

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Maya Angelou’s Growing Up Poor, Black and Female

SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH ◽

10.24113/ijellh.v8i6.10630 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (6) ◽

pp. 50-66

Author(s):

Dr. Minu Kundi

Keyword(s):

Black Women ◽

American Literature ◽

African American Literature ◽

American South ◽

Life Writing ◽

Growing Up ◽

Chronological Order ◽

The American South ◽

Critical Paths ◽

American Society

African American literature is the literature of pain and survival, of triumphs and defeats, of fears and dreams, and of struggle for freedom, equality and identity, produced by the oppressed ones. Black women have used life writing to discover or assert their identity. As they record their experiences they see the critical paths established by the oppressive forces of racism, classicism and sexism. In exploring what it means to be poor, black and female, they present mirror images of ‘self’ and the ‘other’ to the world. Within the marginalized blacks in America, women are at triple disadvantage. Being poor, black and female makes them most vulnerable and easy target for the male dominated community. Maya Angelou’s life writing I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) tells the story about a black female’s hard life growing up in the American South during the 1930s and 40s. In it Angelou recounts the events of her life in chronological order amidst the racist and sexist American society. She portrays most of her difficult life events from the age of three to sixteen in her life writing showing her hard upbringing, poverty, racism and sexual abuse.

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