Lifework

On the autobiographical impulse in contemporary art, writing, and theory

Moran Sheleg

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781526172471
• eBook ISBN: 9781526172464
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: History of Contemporary Art

Following the critical scepticism surrounding the notion of the 'self' as a singular entity during the 1960s, many artists and writers sought to test the apparent problem posed by autobiography as both a traditional genre and as a way of working. Considering the consequent emergence of autotheory, Lifework traces this shift in artistic and literary production during the late twentieth century and beyond, examining a set of diverse practices that mine the line between what it is to make art and what it is to live life. The book's chapters connect a variety of artistic strategies that cut across medium, geography and time, uncovering how the historical marginalisation of first-person experience has taken on larger social, cultural and political implications in the contemporary moment and how the work of living might still relate to the work of art.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: the life of work, the work of life
• Part I Working lives
• Part II Enveloping me
• Part III Autotheory as medium and message
• Part IV Conceptualising the self
• Part V I remember … remember me
• Index