Conclusions

With Liberty and Justice for All documents not just a slice of Karasic's life but also the process that she goes through in finding her identity. The juxtapositions of text and images that she uses, always in sequence but also variable, document this often fragmentary and confused process that she is imposing narrative over. As a part of this process, Karasic often seems to present us with a view of the world "from the outside looking in," a feeling of alienation that is expressed in her description of being American in a foreign land, and then later in being the "only black child" in a class of white people. In both these senses Hall's statement about identity seems to apply, as what Karasic is, is often constructed by the outside world. Karasic speaks of herself in terms of what she is represented as, whether in a black girl going to school in 1960s Virginia, or as an American abroad. Yet within and beyond these representations she also forms her own identity. This site is in many ways a production of identity, but it is also an affirmation of identity and the process itself, a way perhaps as bell hooks says to both accept and be rid of the past.

Karasic depends on her viewer's knowledge of American culture in the 1960s, both the civil rights movement and pop and advertising culture, to give weight to her juxtapositions. While she identifies many of the pictures in the "American Dreams" sequence, a knowledge of the importance of many of these icons is necessary to get the full weight of their place in Karasic's life story. I believe that rather than trying to analyze and pick out specific ironic juxtapositions to define as the meaning of the site (although they certainly exist) we as viewers/readers are meant more to get a feeling for a life shaped by all of these things - the elements of the "American Dream" and the elements of Karasic's specific life both. The overall effect can be rather overwhelming; in pictures we are given Karasic's life as she might remember it, in flashes as a little girl, but we are also given a version of the American cultural memory, in its beauty and its ugliness. More than just an example of "the aesthetics of confusion" as Karasic calls the site, With Liberty and Justice for All is an example of how personal, cultural and political history can interact.

This leads, for me, to the question of whether Karasic's site is an autobiography after all, or whether it is more of a political statement. Can something be both an autobiography and a political document? I believe that we can perhaps judge this question by looking at what matters more for the meaning of this story: is it Carmin's experiences as an individual, or a generalization of meaning about finding black identity, that produces the real structure and value of this story? Perhaps also we can refer back to Adams, who shows us that autobiography does not have to follow the traditional boundaries of "personal truthfulness," and also to McKay and Diamond who demonstrate that American Black women's autobiographies have a long tradition of being both political and personal documents, autobiographies which often affirm racial politics and authenticity before describing the personal. I believe that it is entirely possible for something to be both political and personal; Karasic forms a structured story in this site with both in mind. Karasic tends to disassociate 'herself' from her story; in her artist's statement she does not say "was I meant to say the pledge," but rather "Was the pledge meant for this little black girl growing up in the US in the 1960s?" thus making her experience perhaps in some way universal and hence with greater political implications. Karasic's site is also about finding identity as an outsider, whether excluded at various points in her life through race or nationality; but the process of finding that identity (like the civil rights movement itself) is a process shaped by the times.

In some ways this process of finding identity as an outsider is comparable to immigrant narratives, for instance, Joyce Dallal's Finding Home and April Somboun's examination of this site Have you found your home? . While Karasic is a native-born American, her ability to experience the full rights of an American is called into question, much like these immigrants. The ultimate irony is, like Colette Gaiter, Karasic is often able to feel more at home in a foreign country because of the lessened pressure of her race.

Compared to a site like Caitlin Fisher's 'These Waves of Girls,' another site that deals with growing up as a female and an outsider, Karasic's site is quite linear, politically oriented and ultimately personal. Partially, this is because while Karasic's site is called autobiography, "These Waves" is labeled hypertext fiction. Yet both sites take an approach of re-memberance: of producing a story out of fragmentary (whether 'true' or not) memories. At base, the internet is about connections; so are these two stories. Karasic's site brings together images of pop culture, of advertising, of the "American Dream" along with her own life in a connected web, mirrored by her many windows and the fragmentary nature of the internet and memory itself. Karasic imposes order on her life, even if it is imperfect order: we learn from her site, we feel as if we know her, even if briefly.

"Influence," artwork by Carmin Karasic