Performative Memoir

By combining autoethnography, performance studies, and memoir, the authors create a writing genre called “performative memoir.” This book applies the current thinking in performance studies and autoethnography to demonstrate how performative memoir operates as a unique and specialized way of performative writing.

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In Performative Memoir: Moving between Worlds, Theresa Carilli and Adrienne Viramontes construct a new genre of writing, performative memoir. Drawing on scholarship in performance studies and autoethnography, the authors outline a methodology for studying autoethnography, performance, and memoir in a new creative process. Carilli and Viramontes then demonstrate the process by creating their own performative memoirs, titled “Loving Crazy” and “Mexican Love,” and perform a close reading of each memoir to show how these theories can be applied to our own personal experiences and trauma. Scholars of performance studies, communication, media studies, cultural studies, and trauma studies will find this book particularly useful.