Meaning of autotheory | Babel Free

Definitions

A challenge to the dominant perspective and theoretical framework through the use of subjective and autobiographical material.

countable, uncountable

Examples

“Encounters with autotheory are not about a "warm fuzzy" effect for the reader: though possible, it is equally likely that one might be made distinctly uncomfortable while engaging honestly with the challenging analyses that autotheories present.”

“Preciado's creative narrative introduces us to a different kind of book: part memoir (what Preciado classifies as 'autotheory'), part queer theory.”

“In autotheory as contemporary feminist practice, artists, writers, philosophers, activists, curators, and critics use the autobiographical, first person, and related practices of self-imaging (Jones, Self/Image 134) to process, perform, enact, iterate, subvert, instantiate, and wrestle with the hegemonic discourses of "theory" and philosophy.”

CEFR level