The Argonauts Background

An author of American origin, Maggie Nelson was born in 1973. She authored the work, “The Argonauts” and has currently bagged several awards, notably the 2016 Macarthur Fellowship “Genius Grant” and a 2012 Creative Capital Leadership Fellowship. The Graywolf Press published “The Argonauts” in 2015 and it is widely regarded as belonging to the nonfiction genre, containing as it is a large sprinkling of autobiographical features. In the words of Nelson, “The Argonauts” is a book of “auto theory” which slants conventional genres through an admixture of autobiographical elements and annotations on sexuality, gender, and widely acceptable ideas of family. In addition, Nelson authored earlier works that are equally categorized as nonfiction and partly autobiographical due to their obsession with some phases in the author’s life. By way of illustration, “The Argonauts” focuses on the stage in the author’s life when she was pregnant. In the course of this period, the sculptor, Harry Dodge, who was her significant other, was undertaking sex transition therapy. It was a time when Harry experienced a double mastectomy and gave himself hormone injections, a development which altered the range of his union with Nelson thereby compelling her to include these revolutionary life experiences in “The Argonauts”. Among other features, Nelson also details sundry facets of her pregnancy along with her experience, including her transiting spouse and the public perception of their lives. The critiquing of the book by the public was multifaceted with the author being sometimes pilloried for her overt exposé of her personal life and battles. All the same, Nelson contends that it is natural for her to write about her private life and experiences as it accorded her the honesty and probity she needed to dissect important issues. Notwithstanding occasional severe condemnation, “The Argonauts” became the proud winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and equally emerged as a New York best-seller, while also garnering a wide overseas readership. The Guardian, a UK-based publication, particularly eulogized the book. To date, “The Argonauts” is the most famous piece of literature authored by Nelson and has remained the reader’s best choice of a romantic story as several critical reviewers have scored it. Another theme of the work is the idea of ‘family’ about non-conventional unions. The union between Nelson and Dodge is viewed as a “chosen family” and the novel analyses the manner of the formation of this family and the rigors of maintaining it in the face of the changing realities of the couple. Nelson again reevaluates the concept of family with special reference to her own life and her union with her parents and siblings. Moreover, the novel explores the societal perception of these family paradigms and the battle they fight to gain acceptance. Notable foci of the work are its efforts to contest the traditional ideas of sex and family and to re-characterize them more inclusively and liberally. Nelson’s work is viewed as radical by several people since her book dwells on the issue of legitimizing LGBTQIA along with families and conjugal unions. Her writing of her encounter with gender and sexuality was an effort to pave the way for people to research these issues devoid of fear or judgment. It is noteworthy that Nelson was one of few persons who explained publicly her amorous union with a transgender person. A good many readers have eulogized Nelson’s work as a valid and much-needed analysis of gender and family. It has become an indispensable reference handbook for all who desire a more in-depth appreciation of these matters and their impact on the contemporary world. Nelson’s book has equally been lauded for the candor and perceptiveness with which it x-rays the difficulties encountered by people in non-conventional unions. “The Argonauts” is an invaluable contribution to modern literature and is certain to maintain its relevance as the literature of choice in the succeeding years.