American TV series The L Word hosts as its central motif the “Chart,” in which links amongst the lesbian community are mapped. The “Chart” comprises a virtual matrix of connections which functions analogously to the blogosphere. In the blogosphere, individual narratives are inscribed within a virtual community, and authors’ presence in the real world coexists with online selves who are operating in hypertextual discourse. My intention is to systematically examine the blogging activities of female writers in the LGBT blogosphere as they use their writings to explore their personal creativity. I will examine communities of linked blogs in which issues relating to creative practice, personal identity, and political activism are explored. I am interested in ways in which bloggers participate in transnational textualities in order to share their practice, and contribute to the formation of globalised LGBT communities.
This research will examine blogging practice as a medium of self-exploration, a medium which I believe has grown up in tandem with discourses of self-actualisation and healing from trauma. The growth of analysis of the trauma narrative also aids us in the process of examining literatures produced by minority cultures who may be responding to homophobic prejudice on both personal and broader social levels. Natalie Rogers describes the therapeutic process she terms the “Creative Connection”:
We discovered that using movement, visual art, sound and journal writing in sequence with very little verbalization helped us tap into our unconscious and our archetypal persona, bringing insight to our personal issues (Rogers, 2010).
The blogosphere has been referred to as a space in which the social order can be rewritten and transformed (Pole, 2010, 2). Pullen and Cooper highlight the emerging possibilities for analysing LGBT identity in their book LGBT Identity and Online Media (2010). They point to the medium’s ‘opportunities for coming out, connecting to and constructing communities, establishing identity ideals, and composition of self-narratives via blogs,’ (Pullen & Cooper, 2010).
There is a well-documented tradition of autobiographical journal-type writing amongst the LGBT literary community (see for example works by Bornstein, 1994; Duffy, 2005; Feinberg, 1993; Lorde, 1996; Winterson, 1985). All of these texts respond well to readings of them as trauma narrative, autobiography, and survivor narratives, and they each contain strong elements of political activism. I intend to examine personal blogs as a continuation of this literary tradition. By way of example, Kate Bornstein’s blog details her creative practice as a performance artist, her personal development as she confronts and processes transphobic prejudice, and her political action to deconstruct gender binaries (www.katebornstein.typepad.com).
Proposed Structure of PhD
Literature Review
- Contextualising literary cultures within Net 2.0 social networking sites
- Examining Net 2.0 as a space for representing transgendered identities
- Traditions of journal writing, autobiography, and political debate within the LGBT community, and their development within blogging practice
- Theories of writing practice as a tool for personal change; literatures of self-actualisation within the LGBT community
Chapter One: Creativity: reflecting on creative practices of blog writers as they comment on their lives as creative practitioners within the wider community. This will include analysis of audio-visual and textual components of blogs by bloggers who engage in visual, multimedia and performance art, in addition to the literary arts.
Chapter Two: Identity: interrogating practices of self-imagining or self-creation within blogs, touching on narratives of coming out, defining the self, gender identity and sexuality, forming relationships, finding a community, overcoming prejudice, self-acceptance and exploring processes of personal change.
Chapter Three: Activism: exploring blogs which narrativise the formation of personal and political identity, political events and affiliations, campaigning and political writings.
Data Collection and Methodology
I possess strong research design and project management skills, and have experience of using qualititative and quantitative research methods. In this study a sample of 90 blogs will be selected and analysed. The sample will be collected by means of a snowball sampling technique. Blogs will initially be identified by means of internet searches for LGBT blogs with a UK and international focus. Bloggers will be women who engage in visual, multimedia and performance art, in addition to the literary arts. Subsequent blogs will be identified by means of blogrolls, links and recommendations offered by the owners of these initial blogs. This method of sampling has been selected as it mirrors the decentralized, organic nature of social networking sites. Consent will need to be gained from owners of all blogs before content from their blogs can be used in this study. Blogs will be consecutive, journal-type writings kept for the period of at least one year. I will perform a content analysis of audio-visual materials in the blogs, alongside close textual analysis of selected blog posts relating to the following broad themes: Creativity, Identity, Activism.
This is an opportunity to create genuinely new knowledge and understanding of a field in which very little systematic research has been produced. The blogosphere is an incredibly rich resource for study, and has much to offer us as regards narratives of personal identity, or as a genre of life-writing. The ever-evolving nature of these media means that study of the blogosphere offers genuine scope for contributing to knowledge in this arena.
Select Bibliography
Bornstein, K. 1994. Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us, London: Routledge
Duffy, C.A. 2005. Rapture, London: Picador
Feinberg, L. 1993. Stone Butch Blues, U.S.: Firebrand Books
Lorde, A. 1996. (1st edn 1982) Zami: a New Spelling of my Name, London: Pandora
Pole, A. 2010. blogging the political: politics and participation in a networked society, London: Routledge
Pullen, C. & Cooper, M. eds, LGBT Identity and Online New Media, London: Routledge
Winterson, J. 1985. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, London: Pandora
Online Publications
Kate Bornstein’s Blog for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws: www.katebornstein.typepad.com accessed 02/12/10
Rogers, N. ‘Giving Life to Carl Rogers’ Theory of Creativity, http://talentdevelop.com/articles/GLTCRTOC.html, accessed 02/12/10
The L Word Official Website: http://www.sho.com/site/lword/home.do accessed 02/12/10
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