ABSTRACT
Dominant readings of women's writing commonly produce a kind of carnal knowledge in which the workings of power can be clearly seen through the familiar metaphors: jungles are to be penetrated and dark continents illuminated by maps. Sexuality is not only a privileged site of profanation, but also a privileged subject of confession in Western culture. This is of course one of the reasons why it is said that sexuality is 'repressed' by our culture. Confession not only facilitates surveillance by another, but also self-surveillance, since the subject must constantly scrutinise thoughts and actions for matters to confess. Autobiography must be considered as a special form of confessional practice that enables the self-cultivation of writer and reader alike. It is a site for action upon the self, for effecting transformations of the self and its relations with the world. It is concerned not so much with representation of the past, however 'subjective', as with performance in the present.
