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AUTOGYNOGRAPHY

Autogynography is a term coined by Domna Stanton in the 1980s to label works of female autobiography that were previously ignored in the study of the genre. 'Gyno' raises the possibility that female self-narrations may be different from those of men. It is rooted in the psychological differences between the male and female psyche identified by Freud.

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Flo Marzullo
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1K views1 page

AUTOGYNOGRAPHY

Autogynography is a term coined by Domna Stanton in the 1980s to label works of female autobiography that were previously ignored in the study of the genre. 'Gyno' raises the possibility that female self-narrations may be different from those of men. It is rooted in the psychological differences between the male and female psyche identified by Freud.

Uploaded by

Flo Marzullo
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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AUTOGYNOGRAPHY

Autogynography is a term used in the 1980s by Domna Stanton to label works of female
autobiography that were previously ignored in the study of the genre . Autogynography is a term
coined by Domna Stanton in The Female Autograph (1987) to highlight (and counter) the canonical
identification of autobiography with men’s writing. Moreover, ‘gyno’ raises the possibility that
female self-narrations may be different from those of men.

She emphasizes that women’s autobiographical writing is essentially different from that of their
male contemporaries, and thus deserves to be treated differently and scrutinized outside of the
patriarchal model of autobiography

Until the 1970s female autobiography was patently ignored, and as Domna Stanton notes in her
essay, “Autogynography: Is the Subject Different?” is generally devalued and regarded as inferior.
In her denouncement of female autobiography, Simone De Beauvoir said that “it is her own self that
is the principal----sometimes the unique subject of interest to her.” However, increasing value has
been placed in autogynography as numerous scholars like Stanton, examine the motivation, style,
and qualities unique to autogynography

Stanton’s studies, and those of her contemporaries, revealed a startling difference in the stylistic,
psychological, and literary qualities of autogynography and the male world of autobiography.

Autogynography creates an entirely different experience, one rooted in the psychological


differences between the male and female psyche identified by Freud. These differences in the
psyche manifest themselves in writing and the writing process as we see that in autogynography
“women’s sense of self exists in a deep awareness of others” (Mason).

Stanton (1984) suggests that the study of autobiography has largely left out the female subject
whose diaries, memoirs and letters have remained absent from autobiographical theory. This genre
of writing was deemed by many academics to be “too windy and unreliable”.

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