Representing and Narrating the Self across Media: Vivek Shraya’s Artist Persona

Abstract

Drawing primarily on life-writing scholarship and persona studies, and paying particular attention to the different media affordances, this article traces the autobiographical elements in the oeuvre of Canadian multigenre artist Vivek Shraya. It identifies how Shraya utilizes autobiographical content in various media, platforms, and modes—e.g., essays, a comic book, a play, photography, and Instagram—as one of the tools to create her artist persona. The article argues that through the prolific production of episodical, interconnected and occasionally inconsistent life writing and automedia, Shraya navigates the contemporary pressures on a celebrity artist, particularly one in an intersectionally precarious position: frequent content production, self-commodification and providing the audience with access to their private life. Through a discussion of Shraya’s autobiographical production, this article exemplifies the impact of the digital forms of self-representation on contemporary autobiographical expression.