Mainstream or margin? Epistolary writing by contemporary women: the warp, the weft and the loom

Contemporary epistolary novels are experiments in style and form. Unlike the nineteenth-century sentimental examples, they emphasise post-modern fragmentation and the disappearance of the grand narrative. Informal, creative forms of writing, such as diaries, journals and personal letters, previously trivialised for being outside the traditional genres of canonical literature, are now accepted as legitimate, and indeed worthy of inclusion as 'literature'. Contemporary autoethnographie epistolary creative writing can dispel cultural myths, thereby addressing social injustices and offering a powerful tool for social change. The connection between mainstream women's writing and the epistolary form will be the focus of this paper.