Women in Rock Memoirs Music, History, and Life-Writing

Women in Rock Memoirs vindicates the role of women in rock music. The chapters examine memoirs written by women in rock from 2010 onwards to explore how the artists narrate their life experiences and difficulties they had to overcome, not only as musicians but as women. The book includes memoirs written by both well-known and lesser-known artists and artists from both inside and outside of the Anglo-American sphere.

The essays by scholars from different research areas and countries around the world are divided into three parts according to the overall themes: Memory, Trauma, and Writing; Authenticity, Sexuality, and Sexism; and Aging, Performance, and the Image. They explore the dynamics of memoir as a genre by discussing the similarities and differences between the women in rock and the choices they have made when writing their books. As a whole, they help form a better understanding of today's possibilities and future challenges for women in rock music.

Cristina Garrigós is Professor of American Literature at UNED. Her research interests include US contemporary literature, film, music, postmodernism, punk, memory, and gender studies. She is the author of a monograph on John Barth, as well as coauthor of the book of interviews God Save the Queens: Pioneras del Punk (2019) with Paula Guerra and Nuria Triana. She is the editor of Punk Connections: A Transcultural Perspective, (U. of Barcelona) with Nuria Triana-Toribio. She has published on authors such as Kathy Acker, Gloria Anzaldúa, Giannina Braschi, Helena María Viramontes, Don DeLillo, or Ruth Ozeki, among others. Her last book is Alzheimer's Disease in Contemporary US Fiction: Memory Lost (2021).

Marika Ahonen is a doctoral candidate in Cultural History at the University of Turku, Finland. Her doctoral dissertation examines the construction of narratives in popular music and the ethical questions raised in this context. She is examining the topic through the authorship and music of Spanish singer-songwriter Christina Rosenvinge (b. 1964). Overall, her research interests include the connection between popular music and identity, the relation of gender to agency, and the fields of narrative ethics and power mechanisms. She is also drawn to the areas of phenomenology and hermeneutics. Ahonen has won the ISCH (International Society for Cultural History) 2022 essay prize with the article titled 'Sirens, Narrative Ethics, and Christina Rosenvinge's Mi Vida Bajo el Agua'. The article will be published in the journal Cultural History in 2023.

1. Cristina Garrigós and Marika Ahonen. Introduction
Part 1. Memory, Trauma, and Writing
2. Astrid Joutseno. Childhood Trauma and the Musical In-Between in Memoirs by Astrid Swan and Dory Previn.
3. Cristina Garrigós: The Monster in the House: Gender-Based Violence and Punk in Alice Bag's Violence Girl: East L.A Rage to Hollywood Stage. A Chicana Punk Story.
4. Ángel Chaparro. Memory and Writing in Kim Gordon's Girl in a Band
5. Marika Ahonen. Memory, Truth, and Narrative Ethics in Christina Rosenvinge's Debut.
Part 2. Authenticity, Sexuality, and Sexism
6. Karen Fournier. Jayne County, Laura Jane Grace, and the HerStory of Transgender Punks in America.
7. Margaret Henderson. A Portrait of the Artist as a Punk: Authenticity and the Woman Musician in Debbie Harry's Face It.
8. Wayne Heisler. "Mothers aren't sexy," "What is that you're wearing", "What's it like to be in an all-girl band?": Memoirs as Histories of 1980s Music Industry Sexism
9. Beatriz A. Medeiros. The Art of Performing Authenticity: a study of Amanda Palmer's memoir
10. Amy McCarthy. The Punk, the Rebel, and the Cowboy: Queering Masculine Spaces in Patti Smith's memoirs
Part 3. Aging, Performance, and the Image
11. Jacqueline Dickin. Queens of Noise: Rewriting the 'Rock Chick' Identity through Neon Angel and Living Like A Runaway
12. Satoko Naito. Humanizing Icon: Collaboration and Control in Grace Jones's I'll Never Write My Memoirs.
13. Silvia Hernandez Hellin: Power in the Eye of the Beholder: Authoring Text and Image in the Female Rock Memoir
14. Abigail Gardner. Cosey Fanni Tutti, Age and Place
Index