Abstract
Faced with crisis, we often expect strategies of subversion and resistance within linear narratives of transformation. Taking the view that socio-political change does not always arise from rupture and radical discontinuity, I suggest that looking at the impasse as a useful counterpoint to these models. The impasse is a state of suspension characterised by a sense of ‘no-longer and not-yet’. In this state, narratives do not necessarily orient themselves to transformation, depicting instead uncertainty, unknowing, ambivalence and drift. Autofictional writing, in its hybridised form of fiction and biography, as well as its attention to writing as self-construction, lends itself to theorising the impasse. My study focuses on Jessie Greengrass’ autofictional Sight (2019), which stages the crisis of transformative choice in relation to motherhood: can one rationally choose an experience that, when undergone, might undermine their current identity? Drawing on Agnes Callard’s notion of aspiration, I consider how transformation might require an ongoing commitment to a projected future self and an expansive ‘relearning’ of the world. In a time of multiplying social and ecological crises, closer attention to this state of impasse – or perceived ‘exitlessness’ – may help us better attend to the present as a generative space of figuring out.
Presenters
Clara NgPhD Student, Centre for Multidisciplinary and Intercultural Inquiry, University College London (UCL), United Kingdom
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Autofiction, Contemporary, Women, Crisis, Narrative, Impasse
