Writing life

Autobiographical writing is more than a linguistic act. But what exactly happens when we plan to write down our lives? Based on guided interviews with four women autobiographers, this study documents the process of autobiographical writing from the idea to the written text. In folklore and cultural studies research on narratives, written testimonies and oral autobiographical narratives have been the main objects of research until now. However, there is no empirical examination of the process of autobiographical writing itself and its interpretation by the writers. The focus of this book is the analysis of how writers describe and interpret the path to autobiography. The process of remembering, writing and (self-)interpreting as part of the autobiography project is examined as a concrete biographical and cultural-analytical making on the basis of a narrative about narrative - a narrative in double performance. In autobiographical writing as aesthetic work, a multiplicity of practices dominates that shape present and future life as a concept of action.