Red Chidgey The Resisting Subject: Per-zines as life story data University of Sussex Journal of Contemporary History, 10, (2006) The Resisting Subject: Per-zines as life story data Red Chidgey University of Sussex (Brighton, UK) Abstract This paper calls for zines – amateur publications written, designed and distributed on the margins of print and academic cultures – to be recognised as a new form of life story data. By concentrating on one particular genre of zines, the “per-zine” (personal zine), I will argue that these cultural artefacts are created by “resisting subjects” who deploy a range of narrative styles both incorporating and contesting existing life writing and autobiographical conventions. The American zine Sisu will be discussed as a case-study to demonstrate how per-zines act as sites of life-writing, documenting personal, social, cultural and family histories. The paper concludes by examining how the future historian can best approach and administer these types of life story documents, through a new set of archival and interpretative strategies. Key words: Zines, Life-Writing, Archive, Resisting Subjects, Grrrls. Introduction Technological advances in Western society are often coupled with emerging forms of life history composition and documentation. Alongside the spread of autobiographic acts in connection to the rise of the internet over the past few decades,1 this paper will demonstrate that also there exists other, more hitherto unrecognised, forms of life-writing taking place in the public-sphere. This phenomena involves zines; self-published paper booklets which combine the life story conventions of autobiographical writing, diary extracts, letters, personal photography, essays, and other literary and artistic devices. Zines represent a covert type of life narrative circulated in sub-cultural d.i.y (do-it-yourself) writing communities, largely produced as a form of self-expression by young people in their teens and twenties for public consumption. Zines exist as ephemeral yet powerful documents of personal testimony. It is the aim of this paper to bring to the attention of historians their purpose, and potential, in offering a series of voices and experiences often lacking in the public and historical record. In this paper, I shall draw upon the American zine Sisu by Johanna as a case-study to illuminate the main issues of treating zines as life story documents suitable for archiving and research. To date, Johanna has produced three issues of Sisu between February 2003 and August 2004. The name “sisu”, the zine-writer informs us in Sisu #1, is a Finnish term meaning determination. It is also the name of Johanna’s parents’ boat – a photo of which is reproduced on the front cover of the first issue (see Figure One). As a Finnish- Asian- American twenty-seven year old, Johanna uses her zine to address the issues of identity, family, and the broader ‘second- generation’ immigrant community to which she belongs.