ABSTRACT
There are multiple genres of writing about the self. We might place towards one end of the continuum those texts that make primarily academic claims, often written under a label of introspectionism. Towards the other end of this continuum we might position those postmodern texts that erase or purposefully confuse the distinction between fact and fiction. Within the study of consumer behaviour, examples of the former, introspective vein, include writings by Morris Holbrook (1995, 1996), Stephen Brown (1997) and Stephen Gould (1991). Consumption studies at the more postmodern end of this continuum are more numerous and include writings by Nick Hornby (1992, 1995), Nicholson Baker (1988), Don DeLillo (1984), Alain de Botton (1994) and John Vernon (1999). Predictably, those examples of life writing that have been positioned towards the academic end of this genre continuum have come under attack from the more priggish of our colleagues (e.g., Wallendorf and Brucks 1993). The issues involve positivist notions of objectivity and Truth versus interpretivist notions of subjectivity and truths.
