ABSTRACT
Literary and cultural theory continues to demonstrate an interest in confessional discourse. Contemporary cultural criticism suggests that confession continues to mark Western culture and that it remains of interest both to academics and to cultural critics. Recent conference literature refers to the continuing ‘compulsion to confess’ (Ashplant and Graham 2001) and to the ‘imperative to speak out . . . evident in popular culture . . . such as confessional television’ (Ahmed and Stacey 2001: 1).1 Peter Brooks’s recent treatment of the subject opines that confession is ‘deeply ingrained in our culture’ (2000: 2) and is to be found everywhere, though especially in the ‘everyday business of talkshows’ (Brooks 2000: 4; Elsaesser 2001: 196). A recent edition of a British radio series on literature examined the significance and value of confessional literature and poetry (‘Off the Page’ 2000). Like Brooks, the ‘Off the Page’ broadcast noted confession’s contemporary move from the more rarefied arenas of poetry and literary prose, to the public (and more downmarket?) spheres of television chatshows, televised courtrooms and presidential addresses. Meanwhile, the popularity and marketability of popular literary confessions was still being remarked upon in broadsheet journalism of the late 1990s (Bennett 1995; Wurtzel 1998).
