Feminist Life Writing

Berry, Dorothy. “The House Archives Built.” up//root. June 22, 2021. (full text of article)

Choose a text that interests you from the list below, and spend some time reading and looking at it. Feel free to make a note of any feelings, questions, or impressions that come up for you as you engage with the text.

• Digitized sections from Ntozake Shange's journals (1981, 2009). One perfect bound journal containing personal notes and daily entries (finding aid)

• Stella Bloch Hanau diary (1908-1912) or scrapbook ((1905-1911). Pick a few pages. (finding aid)

• Barnard Magazine alum updates Winter 1980 (or feel free to pick another issue). Read a few pages. (finding aid)

• Reorientation Guide (1971). Read the introduction and Section on "Getting a Women's Education" (finding aid)

• Invitation to the Scholar and Feminist Planning Committee (1982). From Barnard Center for Research on Women records. (finding aid)

• Pat Parker and Audre Lorde reading at the Women's Building in San Francisco (1986). From the San Francisco State University Poetry Center digital archive. Video and text description below it; feel free to watch a shorter part of the video as it is long!

• Oral History of Lily Soohoo Louie from Class of 1971 Oral History Collection (finding aid)

As you spend time with one of the texts above, think about the following:

• Who, what, when, where, why, and how (use these words as paths into questions of your own choosing!)
• What is the context for how this source has been digitized, preserved, and shared?
• What do you notice about genre and format in the text? How does it remind you of texts you've already read (especially texts you've read as "life writing" and how does it differ?
• Examine your text focusing on several of these lenses: gender, race, sexuality, class, and disability. How have systems and vectors of power and oppression shaped the creation of the text; the way it circulates in the world; the way it has been or could be received?
• What themes emerge as important to you as you look at the text? For instance: the representation of bodies; the relationship between the private and the public; navigating the need for authorizing one's own story?
• What other kinds of sources would you want to use to support your analysis of this text? What sources could you imagine talking to this text, or responding to it in some way (direct or indirect)?