Personal narrative, performance, performativity: Two or three things I know for sure

Abstract

The proliferation of personal narrative in contemporary culture and performance studies sparks both celebration and suspicion. This essay accesses and assesses current knowledge and issues about personal narrative by weaving three discourses: Dorothy Allison's performance piece Two or Three Things I Know for Sure, academic discourse, and personal narrative. From the conjoined perspectives of performance and performativity, personal narrative embodies cultural conflict about experience and identity. Performativity realizes the contextual and critical potential of the performance paradigm.