Fat in contemporary autobiographical writing and publishing

This article surveys a range of contemporary published autobiographical texts that are titled with, or revolve around, that powerful and most evocative word, ‘Fat’. Using a case study approach, this examination focuses on texts that range from adult and young adult memoirs to personally inflected cookbooks and novel-length graphic works. In doing so, this investigation will identify common elements, themes, tropes and topics of discussion, to investigate what these volumes have in common and construct a preliminary taxonomy of these popular works. Surveying these memoirs in this manner and investigating their themes, tropes and prominent metaphors, contributes to a more nuanced understanding of contemporary writing and publishing practice, how writers, publishers, critics and readers understand ‘fat’ conceptually as well as more practically and personally, and the cultural contribution of these popular media products.