A Body That Writes Is A Body That Fucks

The legacy of Kathy Acker in McKenzie Wark's autofiction

Authors

  • Henry Fragel UFRJ

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29146/eco-ps.v28i2.28588

Keywords:

Kathy Acker, autofiction, Queer Theory

Abstract

McKenzie Wark accepts the challenge not only of writing the memoirs of her brief but intense relationship with novelist Katy Acker, former friend and lover, a few years prior to her death, but also to systematize concepts that permeate the punk icon’s whole body of work. Under the label of autofiction, Wark highlights pivotal moments of her relationship with Acker that helped to shape her self-perception as a transgender woman. From the Greek myth of Athena and Aracne, she follows the clues of a philosophy for spiders, one that does not match a contemplative wisdom for free men, but one that is produced in praxis for women, slaves and beasts, an ethos of writing as of mechanical reproduction that dissents from intellectual property’s conventions: a low theory.

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References

ACKER, Kathy. The Path of Abjection. In: MCCAFFERY, Larry. Some Other Frequency: interviews with innovative american authors. Philadelphia: University Of Pennsylvania Press, 1996.

BUTLER, Judith. Melancholy Gender: refused identification. Psychoanalytic Dialogues: Symposium on Sexuality/Sexualities, New York, v. 2, n. 5, p. 165-180, 1995.

FERREIRA da SILVA, Denise. A Dívida Impagável. São Paulo: Oficina de Imaginação Política e Living Commons, 2019.

GALLOP, Jane. The deaths of the author: Reading and writing in time. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2011.

PRECIADO, Paul B. Feminismo Não É Humanismo. 2014. Disponível em: https://territoriosdefilosofia.wordpress.com/2014/11/26/o-feminismo-nao-e-um-humanismo-beatriz-preciado/. Acesso em: 22 ago. 2025.

ROLNIK, Suely. As Aranhas, os Guarani e alguns europeus. In: Outras notas para uma vida não cafetinada. São Paulo: N-1 edições, 2022.

WARK, McKenzie. Filosofia Para Aranhas: Sobre a baixa teoria de Kathy Acker. São Paulo: N-1 Edições, 2024.

Published

2025-11-11

How to Cite

Fragel, H. (2025). A Body That Writes Is A Body That Fucks: The legacy of Kathy Acker in McKenzie Wark’s autofiction. Revista Eco-Pós, 28(2), 715–723. https://doi.org/10.29146/eco-ps.v28i2.28588