The Diaristic Impulse and Self-construction: An Afterword

This afterword reflects upon how the practice of journal-writing enabled Keith Vaughan to construct and re-construct himself through literary means, providing him with a sense of identification where previously there had been isolation. This afterword considers the diaristic impulse that compels an author-subject to write a journal or diary, before proffering why the journal or diary form is so appropriate as a site for self-construction; chiefly, that it allows the author-subject to establish their own space for identity formation, before they can begin construction with the literary materials and generic conventions available to them. This afterword progresses by considering the implications in the twenty-first century, with an explosion of diaristic behaviours facilitated by the range of available technologies, giving us an improved understanding of selfhood as a network. It closes by asserting that the further study of journal and diary forms is needed in order to develop our understanding of how identity is formed through response.