Speaking Objects: A (Suit)case Study

ABSTRACT

Recent developments in literary and life writing scholarship have interrogated the division and hierarchy between subject and object or human and non-human. This material turn interests me as it suggests a desire to re-make the relationship between autobiographical subjectivity and inanimate objects as well as an attempt to explore the power of spaces and objects in autobiographical writing. This essay will take the example of a small suitcase, which I received after the death of my father, to examine the role of everyday objects in life writing and how things re-present us to ourselves. Using thing theory and insights from material culture studies, my essay will both unfold a personal narrative and explore a series of questions about objects and autobiography.

KEYWORDS:

• Objects
• life writing
• thing theory
• memory

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank the anonymous peer reviewers who provided such constructive feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Rachel Robertson is Senior Lecturer in the School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry at Curtin University in Western Australia. She is author of the memoir Reaching One Thousand (Black Inc, 2012, 2018) and co-editor of essay collections Purple Prose (Fremantle Press, 2015) and Dangerous Ideas about Mothers (UWA Publishing, 2018). Her academic interests include life writing, the essay form, Australian literature, material culture studies and disability studies. Rachel is currently working on a collection of essays inspired by objects.