Embodied Relationality and Healing in Women’s Life Writing: Amy Liptrot’s The Outrun and Tamsin Calidas’s I Am an Island

ABSTRACT: Amy Liptrot’s The Outrun and Tamsin Calidas’s I Am an Island are both examples of life writing that revolve around the writers’ attempts to heal from past trauma; in both works, the healing process commences after they settle on a Scottish island where they live reclusive lives. On the island, both writers gradually begin to establish an embodied connection with nature, and, as their sense of self transforms, they increasingly perceive themselves as embodied beings, embedded in nature. This embodied connection helps them heal from past trauma, which had alienated them from themselves and others and dissociated them from their bodies and emotions. The Cartesian notion of the self requires a split between the body and the mind and, consequently, leads to dissociation. This is why the experience described by both writers represents a positive model of healing, allowing the subject to establish intimate relations not only with themselves and others, but also with nature. Hence, both narratives represent important contributions to ecofeminist concerns.