Abstract
This thesis interrogates the construction of the narrative self across my creative writing and the oeuvre of Taylor Swift. Keisner (2015) suggests that when writing and reading creative non-fiction, the reader makes the assumption that the narrator and the author are one and the same—and objectively truthful.Through the composition of my series of personal essays; Fault Lines and the accompanying exegesis; Mastermind: Reauthoring the Self Across Memory, Music, and Narrative this research aims to critically examine how truth can exist within the selective framework of the confessional mode.
The songwriting of Taylor Swift forms an ekphrastic catalyst for my creative work which writes into the silences that exist in my family due to grief and intergenerational trauma. The writing begins in fragments, evolving from the silent voids of my childhood, ultimately becoming the curated voice of a created narrative persona. Someone who sounds like my voice but moves through the non-linear narrative of my essays; sometimes loud, sometimes introspective but always with authenticity based on audience and purpose.
The exegetical component explores my creative practice in tandem with the reconfiguring of narrative past which Swift has engaged in as she rerecorded her music. Considering the confessional style of her writing foregrounds my questions on the relationship between authorship, truth and the commodification of memory.
What has appeared through the course of this practice-led research is that the narrator, in personal writing, is a curated artefact. They might be emotionally true but are often factually fluid – a construct. By analysing Taylor Swift and my own creative practice this thesis critiques the role of the creation of a narrative persona who revisits the past to rewrite it.
| Date of Thesis submission | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisor | Tegan Daylight (Supervisor) |
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