Welcome to the Exhibit
“If biography is peering through the windows of someone’s house and describing what you see…memoir is peeking into the windows of your own life. A voyeurism of the self. An interior looting” -Jenn Shapland, My Autobiography of Carson McCullers
“I hold one thickly braided cord as story" -Cherrie Moraga, Native Country of the Heart
Subject: Rethinking Queer History Through The Memoir
This archival project constructs a queer historical archive built on an analysis of queer memoirs from the United States.
The subjectivity of the queer memoir, which some would argue is why it should not be considered history, actually enacts queerness itself. Queer identities vary based on self-identification and self-understanding, and differ from person to person. The memoir allows writers to communicate the ways in which they conceptualize their own identity, which need not rely on generalizations, oversimplistic labels, or previous stereotypes. Gemma Killen describes the endeavor of queer historians as “attempting to ‘recover’ missing queer voices and produce stories about queer history that resist the medical and legal discourses within which they have traditionally been shrouded (2017, 60)” (McCann and Monaghan 234).
The memoir deserves extrapolation from the archives, as it inherently exists in resistance to legal and medical pathologizing discourses because it is a personal narrative. The memoir does not rely on medical diagnoses or legalities to characterize LGBTQIA+ identities; instead, LGBTQIA+ individuals are able to tell their own stories outside of the discourses that frequently misrepresent them.
The written page does not protest or oppress the writer; rather, it is a personal journal, a safe space, and a tool at the disposal of the memoir writer. The memoir gives queers the opportunity to tell their own stories as they are, external from the societal structures that try to define, stereotype, and classify them. This is precisely why the memoir should be examined as history, as it is direct insight into the inner thoughts and feelings of queer individuals at various points in time.
Navigating the Webtext
1) A summary-analysis of the twelve memoirs that informed this project. This section is intended to provide a brief overview of each memoir for interested readers. These are my own analyses, so therefore, the events that I found most notable might differ from others. The process of writing these severely impacted my understanding of my own queer identity. Through writing about other peoples' lives and taking the time to try to understand them, I learned about myself, and therefore I changed.
2) A visual map highlighting the locations that the memoir writers have visited or lived. This is a reminder of the physicality of the writers and these stories. It represents an embodiment of history, giving the writing a more material spacial rendering.
3) Common themes found across the memoirs. Part of my mission in this project is to better understand the nature of queer identities by finding commonalities among the genre of queer memoir: what binds the genre together? What does this say about queer identities? The themes are presented only as direct quotes from the memoirs. This allows readers to connect the themes together themselves, encouraging them to engage actively with the webtext.
4) The final section is a theoretical analysis of the findings using theories of assemblage as a framework. This section actually lent itself extremely well to an essay through the centering of assemblage theory. The creation of this section helped frame the entire project and was helpful when I was trying to sort through my findings. This section also juxtaposes the difference of this kind of approach with the rest of the digital multimedia project.
5) There is no particular order recommended for navigating the webtext.
Processing Digital Rhetorics and an Individually-Contructed Digital Archive
1) The creation of a digital archive is shaped by its creator (s). In this case, as the individual creating this project, I found myself confronted with the ethical dilemma of how to portray these histories. I came to the conclusion that any claim at objectivity is a total sham; this project is related to who I am, and provided a grounds for exploring that. As I read, and as I wrote, I changed. The very process of composing this knowledge---taking information and rearraranging and reinterpreting it ---changed me. In My Autobiography of Carson McCullers, memoirist Jenn Shapland writes, "Carson is changing as I write about her, and so am I" (119). The same thing happened to me. Not only are these memoirs a subject of inquiry, but my own understanding of them is as well. The dichotomy between the external and internal converges.
2) The investigation into the specific genre of queer memoir highlights conventions and similarities among them. I utilize Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's framework of assemblages to understand queer and trans identities and the genre of memoir that coalesces among them. I utilize Charles Stivale's definition of assemblage:
"An assemblage is a collection of heterogenous elements. These elements could be diverse things brought together in particular relations, such as the detritus of everyday life unearthed in an archaeological dig: bowls, cups, bones, tile, figurines and so on. This collection of things and their relations expresses something, a particular character: Etruscanness, for example. But the elements that make up an assemblage also include the qualities present (large, poisonous, find, blinding, etc.) and the affects and effectivity of the assemblage: that is, not just what it is, but what is can do. To paraphrase Deleuze and Guattari, we do not know what an assemblage is until we find out what it can do" (Stivale).
In this case, there are multiple assemblages in play. One obvious one is the assemblage of these memoirs. What characterizes the genre of queer memoir? What are its conventions? What thematic commonalities are there? Another assemblage is that of queer and trans identities. What characteristics are common among the people writing the memoirs? What similar stories exist, and what similar motifs or images do people use to communicate their experience?
3) The digital rendering of this space provides opportunity for play. Linearity need not rule this project. As my ideas expanded, so did the project. I used the flexbility of this digital platform to write and learn as much as I could. Without a previous model of any project like this, I avoided a critical lens on what this "should" look like and simply played.
Author's Note
The “X” in the title of this project — Queer x Trans Memoir: In Sight of an Embodied History — stands for the multiplicity of queer identity. Cathy Cohen views sexual expression as “something that always entails the possibility of change, movement, redefinition, and subversive performance” (439). Change is inevitable, and queerness has never failed to ride that wave.
I admire the vulnerability, honesty, and bravery through which the authors of these memoirs have written about the details of their lives, and I want to thank each and every one of them for sharing their stories. 
I hope that others will continue this work, contributing more voices to the archive then writing about those histories from their perspective. My own lens simply isn't enough, and I would be excited to see continuations of this project cropping up.
Welcome to the exhibit.
-Rhyan
This project was piloted in August 2022, made possible by a generous research grant from Chapman University. I want to thank Dr. Jan Osborn for their incredible support throughout the making of this project.
Cover photo credits: Queer.Archive.Work, Inc.
References:
McCann, Hannah, and Whitney Monaghan. Queer Theory Now: From Foundations to Futures.
Macmillan International, Red Globe Press, 2020.
Charles J. Stivale. Gilles Deleuze : Key Concepts. McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005. EBSCOhost, discovery.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=255b9ca9-e342-3480-bb0d-e40cb87f2921.
