In the first century of its existence,
lesbian autobiography
has moved from being coded to being outspoken. It is both wide-ranging
and contradictory in the stories that it tells.
Alice B. Toklas (1887-1967)
Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)
ruptures the assumption that autobiography's subject is the author in
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1933), a book in which
Stein speaks in the voice of her lover.
Dorothy Allison (b. 1949)
writes novels that draw on her experiences growing up in South Carolina
and focus on the sheer survival of her lesbian characters.
Gloria Anzaldúa (b. 1942), an American
Latina lesbian editor and writer, posits a politicized queerness that
is inter-
connected with all struggles against oppression.
Audre Lorde (1934-1992)
foregrounds the tension between telling a story faithful to one's own
experience and writing against foundational "truths" in Zami: A New
Spelling of My Name (1982).
Kate Millett (b. 1934) found that
her autobiographical works were negatively received because she did not
offer "uplifting" versions of lesbian experience.
Cherríe Moraga (b. 1952)
defines her experience as a Chicana lesbian in her own work. As an
editor and publisher, she provides a forum for traditionally silenced
lesbians of color.
more on Lesbian
Autobiography >>
Photo Credits:
Alice B. Toklas by Carl van Vechten. Library of Congress Prints
and Photographs Division.
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