Abstract
Through a reading of Audre Lorde’s Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (1982), and Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (2019), this thesis attempts to define the genre-characteristics of the biomythography. The biomythography is a genre created by Lorde specifically for her text Zami, and has never become widely used. Yet, it joins several other terms in seeking alternatives to traditional genres. The thesis argues that the genre of the biomythography offers a way of analysing how literary texts portray the multi-layered experiences of queer people and people of colour, emphasizing textual elements of community, myth, and desire. First, it examines the defining genre-characteristics of the biomythography through an analysis of Zami: A New Spelling of My Name. Thereafter, it offers a biomtythographic reading of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous to illustrate the possibilities offered by reading texts as biomythographies. The thesis finds that while there are alternative terms to the biomythography that seek to describe those books which are both autobiographical and fictional, they do not include elements which Lorde considers to be crucial to her book. It argues that the biomythography allows for both personal and communal storytelling, and that it provides a focus on the individual as part of a larger community. Furthermore, it finds that the biomythography offers a reading of the way myths are used as a form of alternative knowledge and history writing. It argues that the flexible form of the biomythography allows for desire expressed in non-conforming ways. Finally, it finds that several elements of Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous supports a reading of the book as a biomythography, but that it differs from Zami in the use of myths. Whilst Lorde uses mythological creatures to centre the black female as divine, Vuong uses mythological stories alongside personal ones to rewrite history as a mythology. Ultimately, biomtythographic readings of texts offer a way of examining how authors queer genre in order to express their multidimensional selves and the experiences of their communities.