Publication: Cristina Garrigós, Marika Ahonen (ed): "Women in Rock Memoirs: Music, History, and Life-Writing"
Publication of "Women in Rock Memoirs: Music, History, and Life-Writing" (Oxford University Press, 2023)
edited by Cristina Garrigós and Marika Ahonen.
Women in Rock Memoirs vindicates the role of women in rock music. The chapters examine memoirs written by women in rock from 2010 onwards to explore how the artists narrate their life experiences and difficulties they had to overcome, not only as musicians but as women. The book includes memoirs written by both well-known and lesser-known artists and artists from both inside and outside of the Anglo-American sphere.
The essays by scholars from different research areas and countries around the world are divided into three parts according to the overall themes: Memory, Trauma, and Writing; Authenticity, Sexuality, and Sexism; and Aging, Performance, and the Image. They explore the dynamics of memoir as a genre by discussing the similarities and differences between the women in rock and the choices they have made when writing their books. As a whole, they help form a better understanding of today's possibilities and future challenges for women in rock music.
Table of contents
Cristina Garrigós and Marika Ahonen. Introduction: Female Musicians Writing Memoirs
Part 1. Memory, Trauma, and WritingAstrid Joutseno. Childhood Trauma and the Musical In-Between in Memoirs by Astrid Swan and Dory Previn.
Cristina Garrigós: The Monster in the House: Gender-Based Violence and Punk in Alice Bag's Violence Girl: East L.A Rage to Hollywood Stage. A Chicana Punk Story.
Ángel Chaparro. Memory and Writing in Kim Gordon's Girl in a Band
Marika Ahonen. Memory, Truth, and Narrative Ethics in Christina Rosenvinge's Debut.
Part 2. Authenticity, Sexuality, and SexismKaren Fournier. Jayne County, Laura Jane Grace, and the HerStory of Transgender Punks in America.
Margaret Henderson. A Portrait of the Artist as a Punk: Authenticity and the Woman Musician in Debbie Harry's Face It.
Wayne Heisler. "Mothers aren't sexy," "What is that you're wearing", "What's it like to be in an all-girl band?": Memoirs as Histories of 1980s Music Industry Sexism
Beatriz A. Medeiros. The Art of Performing Authenticity: a study of Amanda Palmer's memoir
Amy McCarthy. The Punk, the Rebel, and the Cowboy: Queering Masculine Spaces in Patti Smith's memoirs
Part 3. Aging, Performance, and the ImageJacqueline Dickin. Queens of Noise: Rewriting the 'Rock Chick' Identity through Neon Angel and Living Like A Runaway
Satoko Naito. Humanizing Icon: Collaboration and Control in Grace Jones's I'll Never Write My Memoirs.
Silvia Hernandez Hellin: Power in the Eye of the Beholder: Authoring Text and Image in the Female Rock Memoir
Abigail Gardner. Cosey Fanni Tutti, Age and Place
Index