Chris Kraus is the rare writer to capture both the literary imagination and the pop culture zeitgeist. When her 1998 novel, I Love Dick, was re-issued in 2006, it was embraced as a feminist classic by a new generation. Among her admirers were the creators of two of TV's most progressive and popular shows: Girls by Lena Dunham, and Transparent by Jill Soloway. I Love Dick’s confessional narrative consists of a series of unrequited love letters which play out as a celebration of personal and professional failure with unapologetic gusto. It seemed to give female readers in particular a gleeful permission to abandon the futile imperative to "have it all."
Chris, a writing professor in ArtCenter’s Grad Art program, has always been driven to question norms and forge new creative frontiers in her work. After stints in New York’s experimental filmmaking communities she found her calling as a writer. In the twenty years since, she has been remarkably prolific, publishing three novels—Aliens and Anorexia, Torpor and Summer of Hate—as well as several collections of essays and her most recent work, After Kathy Acker, a biography of the ‘90’s New York art-world icon and experimental novelist, released last year.
In this episode’s lively and candid conversation, Chris discussed her background in experimental theater, her commitment to stripping artifice from her characters, and her ambivalence about the success of I Love Dick in the context of her lifelong exploration of the spiritual and creative value of failure.
Learn more about Chris's work:
Chris Kraus, Female Antihero After Kathy Acker Chris's body of workKaren Hofmann on building an accessible, affordable and inclusive education
Jackie Amezquita on migration, memory and making art
Aimee Mullins on Finding a World of Possibilities in Every Problem
Artist Lita Albuquerque on Regeneration After the Fire
Artist Kim Schoenstadt on finding redemption through creativity and kinship
James Meraz on creating a path through unimaginable loss
Change Lab Season 10: Forged in Fire, Make to Heal
53 Google's Ivy Ross on Reimagining the Life You're Meant to Live
52 Tisha Johnson on design as a growth mindset
51 Aimee Bender on writing into uncertainty
50 Ann Hamilton on the Power of I-Don’t-Know
49 Mike Shinoda on the Alchemy of Making Music and Art
48 Artist Diana Thater is determined to reveal a world worth saving
Change Lab Season 9: Make to Know
47 Pasadena City College President Erika Endrijonas on leveling the playing field
46 UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ on creating institutional change from within
45 Fuller Seminary President Mark Labberton on the theology of making
44 Dan Brodnitz on democratizing education at LinkedIn Learning
43 Occidental College President Harry Elam on finding a roadmap for systemic change in revolutionary theater movements
42 D’Wayne Edwards on building a pipeline for diversity in sneaker design
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