Autographics

This special issue of Biography devoted to exploring the potential of autographics as a concept and a practice is thick with illustrations, for graphic life narrative resists reduction to summary or translation into a single medium, and requires that we pause and explore the sight, the sounds, the sensational feel of autobiographical representations.

There are two entirely new chapters: one on new genres and new subjects, surveying the innovative forms of life writing that have emerged since 2001, and the other on life narrative in exemplary visual and virtual modes, such as autographics and online blogs, that are reshaping the discursive terms and audience expectations that traditionally defined the field.

In what follows, I look at autographics, interfaces, and avatar autobiography as three forms of virtualized life narrative existing today.

Graphic memoirs or “autographics” are a growing focus of current scholarship.