The Simultaneous Book: Women's Writing in Contemporary Art
Abstract
Novels written by women authors who don’t adhere to the classification “visual artist” are nonetheless gaining momentum in today's contemporary art world. Yet works by authors such as Chris Kraus or Catherine Millet are often not recognized as artist’s novels because their authors are not or/and do not consider themselves to be visual artists. I contend that we can usefully situate their work within the genre of the artist’s novel by addressing how they invent artistic postures and artistic alter-egos within the autofictional worlds of their texts. My dissertation The Simultaneous Book proposes to open up the definition of the artist’s novel to include novels written by woman writers whose practice can be situated at the intersection of conceptual writing, performance art, and autofiction.
The Simultaneous Book investigates how certain novels written by women authors who have been, historically, refused classification within the tradition of “serious literature,” can now be embraced under the rubric of the “artist’s novel.” I contend that these “artist’s novels” grow out of an understanding of the practice of art writing as écriture féminine. Thus, in The Simultaneous Book, the category of the “artist’s novel” and the practice of art writing as women’s writing both function as a sort of refuge for formerly marginalized literary practices, while pointing subtly towards the changing role of patriarchy in the literary and artistic fields.