The importance of personal storytelling in contemporary culture and politics
In an age where our experiences are processed and filtered through a wide variety of mediums, both digital and physical, how do we tell our own story? How do we “get a life,” make sense of who we are and the way we live, and communicate that to others? Stories of the Self takes the literary study of autobiography and opens it up to a broad and fascinating range of material practices beyond the book, investigating the manifold ways people are documenting themselves in contemporary culture. Anna Poletti explores Andy Warhol’s Time Capsules, a collection of six hundred cardboard boxes filled with text objects from the artist’s everyday life; the mid-aughts crowdsourced digital archive PostSecret; queer zine culture and its practices of remixing and collaging; and the bureaucratic processes surrounding surveillance dossiers.
Stories of the Self argues that while there is a strong emphasis on the importance of personal storytelling in contemporary culture and politics, mediation is just as important in establishing the credibility and legibility of life writing. Poletti argues that the very media used for writing our lives intrinsically shapes how we are seen to matter.

"Poletti’s Stories of the Self addresses a scholarly gap at the intersection of autobiography studies and media studies that has long persisted. Combining social constructivism with a media and materiality focus, Poletti (Utrecht Univ., Belgium) looks at the assortment of cultural artifacts that has traditionally been the focus of those who study life writing." - Choice

"Marks a promising change of scholarly focus from narrow literary autobiography to other media materialities. With a productive reorientation and vivid analyses, Poletti extends a convincing invitation to researchers from life writing studies to take into account an even larger variety of contemporary media and material practices that shape how diverse lives come to matter." - KULT_online