Scrambling (for) Time: Experimental Diaries and Feminised Work

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines a variety of diaristic experiments, in prose and comics form, that explore conditions of feminised, precarious work. It argues that, as working conditions historically associated with women become more widespread as forms of precarious, pervasive work, questions of time management, time famine, and optimisation are central to experiences of making a living. To investigate these temporal issues, the article compares two recent experimental prose diaries—‘From my Diaries (2006-2010) in Alphabetical Order’ (2014) by Sheila Heti and The Folded Clock by Heidi Julavits (2015)—and a number of diary comics first published on Instagram as part of the 2023 Hourly Comic Day. The different ways of manipulating key tenets of the diary form, dailiness and chronological sequence, are shown to explore the temporal paradoxes of feminised working conditions, as the diarists make art from life. Scrambling for time to create, the article demonstrates, prompts the writers and artists under discussion to scramble time in their artistic practices. To support this reading, the article draws on previous work on diaries as a feminised form, as well as recent discussions of the lyric diary, diary comics, and their overlaps with lyric poetry.