‘On Mythologizing and Autofiction’
— Andrew Sargus Klein
Identity is the pressure to become.
Melissa R. Sipin’s essay in Anthropoid, ‘On Mythologizing and Autofiction,’ is as remarkable in its form as it is in its content. Touching on literary theory, memoir, works in progress, and trauma, the essay never feels bogged down by the weight of all its topics. Instead, it’s a meticulous and calm investigation into the act of mythologizing the self, often as a means of addressing trauma.
I chose to write through the tradition of ‘experimental, found, and language-based’ poetics to enact the reclaiming, to proceed the knowing, the re-knowing, the fight against erasure, the disowning of cultural assimilation. It is my way of ownership, my way to identity, my way to say—I am not an object—my way to mythologize and pressure the act of becoming.
The author’s journey is open, searching, and personal—it’s both galvanizing and tender as it offers a template for thinking about how authors use mythological, surreal, even absurdist images and scenes as a means of constructing identity. And the journey is so joyfully and infinitely incomplete for both reader and writer, as the self is forever finding new form.