Empowered Women Empowering Women: The Portrayal of Women's Relationships in Feminist Autobiography

Abstract

While research has been done on how different facets of one’s identity can shape the way they deploy literary tactics in lifewriting, little research has examined the way that lesbian autobiographers tell their stories. Current research does not properly address how and why lesbian autobiographers choose to discuss their relationships to other women, in platonic, romantic, and sexual ways. This project expands on that topic by analyzing the scrapbook and memoir of Kansas City lesbian-feminist activist Chris Almvig, titled “Recollections of Flying Out of the Closet: Lake of the Ozarks and Kansas City, 1972–1974.” Almvig’s works are unique because of how much private information Almvig gives about other women in her life. Studying Almvig’s work is thus necessary to fully understand the rhetorical and literary choices of marginalized LGBT+ women.