Editing Confessional writing (section)

== Development of the confessional writing genre ==
[[File:36. Portrait of Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1930.jpg|thumb|A photograph of [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]], taken in 1930. Wittgenstein theorised on the psychological implications and mechanisms of confession as a cathartic act.|left|233x233px]]
The confessional writing genre has historical roots in Catholic confessional practices.<ref name=":2" /> Works such as [[Augustine of Hippo|St. Augustine's]] [[Confessions (Augustine)|''Confessions'']] and [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]'s [[Confessions (Rousseau)|''Confessions'']] are historic antecedents to the modern confessional genre in their depictions of secret emotions, personal revelations, and of sin.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bathory |first=Peter Dennis |date=May 1997 |title=Augustine through a modern prism |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf02912214 |journal=Society |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=73–76 |doi=10.1007/bf02912214 |s2cid=147204355 |issn=0147-2011|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hartle |first=Ann |title=The Modern Self in Rousseau's Confessions: a Reply to St. Augustine. |publisher=University of Notre Dame Press |year=1983}}</ref>

In the early 20th century, the growth of [[psychoanalysis]] increased academic interest in the psychological functions of confession itself.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Parker |first=Ian |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429629488 |title=Psychoanalysis, Clinic and Context: Subjectivity, History and Autobiography |year=2019 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-03199-1 |edition=1st |language=en |doi=10.4324/9780429031991|s2cid=171775824 }}</ref> Following their expatriation from wartime [[continental Europe]] to the United Kingdom and United States during the Second World War, eminent psychoanalytical theorists including [[Sigmund Freud]], [[Heinz Hartmann]], [[Ernst Kris]], [[Rudolph Loewenstein (psychoanalyst)|Rudolph Loewenstein]], and [[Ludwig Wittgenstein]] began to theorise on the [[Defence mechanism|defence functions]] of [[Id, ego and super-ego|ego]] in times of conflict.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kuriloff |first=Emily A. |date=15 August 2013 |title=Contemporary Psychoanalysis and the Legacy of the Third Reich |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203845882 |doi=10.4324/9780203845882|isbn=9781136930416 }}</ref> Wittgenstein expounded on confession as a 'means of self-development,'<ref>{{Cite news |last=Beale |first=Jonathan |date=18 September 2018 |title=Opinion {{!}} Wittgenstein's Confession |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/18/opinion/wittgensteins-confession-philosophy.html |access-date=2022-05-18 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> in that the catharsis facilitated by the act of confession allowed for [[Closure (psychology)|closure]], and the progression away from both unconscious and conscious suffering: writing in 1931 that 'a confession must be part of your new life.'<ref>Peters, Michael A. "Writing the Self: Wittgenstein, Confession and Pedagogy." ''Education, Philosophy and Politics'', Routledge, 2012, pp. 39–53, {{doi|10.4324/9780203155899-6}}

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The literary 'confessional' term was first attributed to a form of writing in 1959: by critic [[M. L. Rosenthal|M.L. Rosenthal]] in response to the confessional poet [[Robert Lowell]]'s seminal anthology ''[[Life Studies]]''.<ref>Rosenthal, M. L. (1959) ''Poetry as Confession.'' The Nation.</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Foundation |first=Poetry |date=17 May 2022 |title=Confessional Poetry |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/collections/151109/an-introduction-to-confessional-poetry |access-date=2022-05-18 |website=Poetry Foundation |language=en}}</ref> The anthology is widely regarded as a seminal confessional text, in the poet's revelations on his relationship to his parents, marital conflict, depression, and generational trauma.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":9" /> Many Confessional Writers at the time were associated with or worked in American writing schools at institutions such as [[Boston University]].<ref name=":9">{{Cite book |first=Paula |last=Hayes |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1058678145 |title=Robert Lowell and the Confessional Voice |date=2013 |publisher=Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers |isbn=978-1-4539-0836-5 |oclc=1058678145}}</ref> Though the style has since gained global use (See: ''Global influence)'', confessional writing emerged in America during the turbulent late 1950s and early 1960s, and was initially characterised by movements away from strictly [[Metre (poetry)|metred]] verse to [[free verse]].<ref name=":1" /> Following the Second World War, the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]], and during other collective traumas such as the [[Cold War]], American 'cultural alienation'<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Molesworth |first=Charles |date=1976 |title="With Your Own Face On": The Origins and Consequences of Confessional Poetry |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/440682 |journal=Twentieth Century Literature |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=163–178 |doi=10.2307/440682 |jstor=440682 |issn=0041-462X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> induced writers to externalise their internal, psychological anxieties and [[angst]]s<ref name=":4" /> through their literary outputs.

The period was also marked by the secession of [[Modernism]] to Postmodernism,<ref>J. H. Dettmar, (2006). Modernism, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature, ed. David

Scott Kastan. Oxford University Press, 2006.</ref> the [[Civil rights movement]], the [[LGBT movements|Gay Rights Movement]], and the onset of [[Second-wave feminism|Second Wave Feminism]] and [[Postcolonialism]].<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":2" /> As such, early confessional works, by writers such as [[Adrienne Rich]], [[Sylvia Plath]], [[Dan Guenther]], and Robert Lowell encompass personal and social issues including distrust of [[metanarrative]]s, [[solipsism]], taboos, and the transgression of restrictive social roles.<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/20866684|title=Risky Writing: Self-Disclosure and Healing through Writing|author=Bauer, Dale M.|year=2005|journal=JAC|volume=25|issue=1|pages=213–218|jstor=20866684 }}</ref><ref name=":13">{{Cite book |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203724484 |title=Histories of Postmodernism |date=19 September 2020 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9780203724484 |isbn=978-0-203-72448-4 |s2cid=170443601 |editor-last=Bevir |editor-first=Mark |editor-last2=Hargis |editor-first2=Jill |editor-last3=Rushing |editor-first3=Sara}}</ref>

Contemporary confessional works encompass broader social issues, including drug-use, digital identity, popular culture, and political engagement.<ref name=":6" />