Exploring Material Culture: How the Moleskine Notebook Performs Identity Work in Garrard Conley¿s Memoir "Boy Erased"

Seminar paper from the year 2022 in the subject American Studies, grade: 1,7, University of Paderborn (Fakultät für Kulturwissenschaften), course: American Things: Exploring Material Culture, language: English, abstract: This paper examines a seemingly simple object, the Moleskine notebook. The Moleskine notebook with its simple and plain design is a tool for writing and sketching. Yet, its popularity is not to be overlooked. A simple Google search for -Moleskine- reveals countless blog entries, articles, detailed images, and accounts of writers- or artists- uses of this object. A fan blog , Moleskinerie.com, gained such popularity that the company eventually took over and now runs the blog itself. Alexis even claims that Moleskine users -constitute a sort of cult-. Not only is the Moleskine journal a practical writing tool, but it also represents who we are and thereby supports peoples- identity work.
American author and LGBTQ activist Garrad Conley is an adamant consumer of the Moleskine notebook.In Boy Erased, a 2016 Memoir, he openly narrates his traumatizing and psychologically harmful experiences made at Love In Action, a Christian ex-gay ministry founded in 1973, and the journey of accepting and finding his identity.