Women in Rock Memoirs: Music, History, and Life-Writing

Women in Rock Memoirs vindicates the role of women in rock music. The chapters examine memoirs written by women in rock from 2010 onwards to explore how the artists narrate their life experiences and difficulties they had to overcome, not only as musicians but as women. The book includes memoirs written by both well-known and lesser-known artists and artists from both inside and outside of the Anglo-American sphere.

The essays by scholars from different research areas and countries around the world are divided into three parts according to the overall themes: Memory, Trauma, and Writing; Authenticity, Sexuality, and Sexism; and Aging, Performance, and the Image. They explore the dynamics of memoir as a genre by discussing the similarities and differences between the women in rock and the choices they have made when writing their books. As a whole, they help form a better understanding of today's possibilities and future challenges for women in rock music.


About the Author
Cristina Garrigós is Professor of American Literature at UNED (National University of Distance Education) in Spain. Her research interests include US contemporary literature, film, music, punk, memory, and gender studies. She is coauthor of the book of interviews God Save the Queens: Pioneras del Punk (66rpm 2019) with Paula Guerra and Nuria Triana. She is the editor of Punk Connections: A Transcultural Perspective, (U. of Barcelona 2017) with Nuria Triana-Toribio. She has published on authors such as Kathy Acker, Gloria Anzaldúa, Giannina Braschi, Helena María Viramontes, Don DeLillo, and Ruth Ozeki, among others. Her latest book is Alzheimer's Disease in Contemporary US Fiction: Memory Lost (Routledge 2021). She is the President of the Spanish Association for American Studies (SAAS, (2023- ).

Marika Ahonen is a doctoral candidate in Cultural History at the University of Turku, Finland. Her doctoral dissertation examines the construction of narratives in popular music and the ethical questions raised in this context through the authorship and music of Spanish singer-songwriter Christina Rosenvinge (b. 1964). Overall, her research interests include the connection between popular music and identity, the relation of gender to agency, and the fields of narrative ethics and power mechanisms. She is also drawn to the areas of phenomenology and hermeneutics. In 2022, Ahonen won the ISCH (International Society for Cultural History) essay prize with the article 'Sirens, Narrative Ethics, and Christina Rosenvinge's Mi vida bajo el agua', published in the journal Cultural History, 2023.