Autotheory replaces discursive construction with phenomenological documentation

Evidence

In immediacy theory, ratiocinative mediations rarely enter the picture; affects and the body found an inexhaustible concreteness that demands empirical cataloging. Where older forms to which autotheory bears some resemblance, like écriture féminine, generated uncertainty in their mix of fiction and fact and vectored their speculum toward invention rather than documentation, autotheory’s phenomenological heft (experience, the self, the body, its beauty, its pain, its pleasure, its transformation) often explicitly counterposes theory’s interest in discursive construction. — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 285

Categorization

• XREF: The contrast of autotheory with écriture féminine — documentation vs. invention — is a striking historical pairing; connects to her broader ‘antitheory’ argument against poststructuralism. — connects to: Phenomenology rediscovers philosophy by describing lived things rather than questioning reality — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 12