Lesbian-Essaying through Textual In(ter)ventions in Memoir

• Main Author: Cruz, Jhoanna Lynn B.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: lesbian; memoir; gender; nonfiction practice; Creative Writing; Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Pacific Islands Languages and Societies; South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/akda/vol1/iss3/4; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/akda/article/1021/viewcontent/3_Cruz_Lesbian_20Essaying_Akda_201_283_29.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

In this exegetical essay, I show how I have deployed linguistic and non-linguistic strategies in the writing of my memoir in order to make my lesbian identity as a writer visible on the page without explicitly stating it. Using the theoretical ideas of Teresa de Lauretis and Nicole Brossard, I assert that a non-conventional approach to the writing of memoir is how a lesbian writer can challenge heteronormative writing standards, particularly in the Philippine literary system, within which I had allowed myself to be molded in my past writing practice. Some of these textual in(ter)ventions—both inventions and interventions—are narrative structure, word play, graphesis, erasure, and collage. While these tools can and have been used by writers of various sexual orientations, I posit that my purposive use of them functions as markers of lesbian subjectivity and textuality.