| This thesis is an exploratory case study of innovative techniques used in three contemporary women's mental health memoirs: Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life by Yiyun Li (2017); Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson (2015); and My Depression: A Picture Book by Elizabeth Swados (2005). Using a critical lens informed by feminist disability theories, cognitive studies, and the concepts of self-performativity and liminality, this work seeks to answer two questions: 1) how do selected recent mental health memoirs creatively push the boundaries of this subgenre, and 2) how are such texts important in a larger sociocultural context? Breaking from genre expectations, these narratives provide new avenues for creative self-expression and identity construction. They furthermore offer more meaningful and empowering narratives to counteract harmful stereotypes projected by popular media such as Thirteen Reasons Why. |
