ABSTRACT
Questions of identity and autobiography have long been at the centre of feminist thought. What is it to be a woman in a world where self-representation has been coded male? Can this “womanness” be regarded as a single building-block in the entity which makes up an identity, or should it be considered as a myriad of sometimes contradicting constituents – or something in between? Furthermore, who is the “I” hiding in the folds of subjectivity, and can it ever be properly turned out? In looking at the life and works of a female singer-songwriter, these questions are highly relevant: not so much in trying to uncover the “true” artist in her oeuvre, but rather in thinking about the interaction between the writer and performer, as well as the “real-life” person in the body of work she has produced – and also in considering my own involvement in the interpretation of Mitchell’s material.
