Description
‘Why Not Call This a Life!’ Auto-something: writing life: sites and affects is a three-part workshop by CCA Research Associate 2022 Lucie McLaughlin. These workshops take ideas of writing from life and hybrid autobiographical forms (auto-fiction, autoethnography, autotheory) as a frame for activity to generate new writing, conversation and research. Hosted online via Zoom on Wednesdays 9, 16 & 23 November 2022, 6pm–8pm.
Through collective reading and writing in response to prompts we will explore how writing relates to observation of sound, image and object in order to construct and perform the world around it. Discussing the ethics and difficulties of ‘writing from life’ or ‘autobiographically’ via its social, cultural and political significance, we will develop new critical inquiries around the art and writing of others and our own practices.
In the first session we will explore the (sometimes compulsive) desire to describe the events, encounters and experiences that compose lives, looking to existing theories and definitions around art writing, theory and autobiography. Writing by Annie Ernaux, Mira Mattar, Lauren Berlant and Kathleen Stewart will be discussed.*
The second session, taking Claire-Louise Bennett’s short story Invisible Birds* as a starting point, will investigate the relationship between ‘settings’ and ‘selves.’ Questioning how writing, fictioning and thinking emerges through knowledge(s) of the places we find ourselves in, formed and re-formed over time.
In the final session we will read Brandon Taylor’s essay Bobos In Ikea* focusing on minimalist trends in ‘novels of the self’ to question the limits of realism, storytelling, essaying and living.
This is a ticketed event, at a cost of £25 for three two-hour online sessions. The workshops will take place on Zoom. An invite and texts will be emailed in advance. Places are limited and booking is essential for this Public Programme event. This is a paperless ticket, to avoid shipping please select Local pick up at CCA at checkout.
*This may change.