Deconstructing Boundaries: Autotheory’s Feminist Legacy

Autotheory is a feminist style of writing and artistic practice that integrates lived experiences with critical theory and/or philosophy. Having roots in a long history of feminist literature, philosophy, and activism, autotheory deconstructs traditional boundaries such as those between theory and practice, the personal and the theoretical, art and life, and mind and body. This article outlines the feminist genealogy of autotheory, tracing its roots from the eighteenth-century women’s confessional writing, through second-wave feminist ideas such as “the personal is political,” to poststructuralist critiques of Cartesian subjectivity, postmodern feminist notions of gender performativity, and intersectional feminist interventions. It also highlights how autotheory resists the phallocentric hierarchies of knowledge production. Moreover, it examines the transformative potential of autotheory due to its re-definition of the self as plural, diverse and relational through strategies like citation and collaborative writing. Ultimately, this study emphasises autotheory’s role in dismantling traditional epistemic structures regarding subjectivity and theory-making while providing a space for marginalized voices to engage in theoretical discourse through lived experiences.