Margo Jefferson

Margo Jefferson is the author of Constructing a Nervous System. Jefferson is a writer and a teacher. In Chapter I, she says that although she has written criticism for some time, “I keep carping and fussing, rearing up against the words ‘critic’ and ‘criticism. Such august, temperate words” (5). In the context of “memoir,” she goes on, “I keep attaching adjectives to it. Cultural memoir, temperamental memoir: What makes me so anxious? I want memoir and criticism to merge” (5). Therefore, Constructing a Nervous System is the manifestation of Jefferson’s work to create this marriage between these seemingly disparate genres. She is not simply interested in examining and critiquing the lives of key historical figures. Neither is Jefferson merely in search of a platform by which to disseminate her life story. Therefore, she uses her subversive structure and form in order to embody the complexities of straddling...