What is the genre called "Confessional?"

[thedarkages]

Reading through my Novel and Short Story Writer's Market, I see the recurring limitation, "No Confessionals." When I think of a 'confessional work,' I think of Augustine or Guibert of Nogent. These are models for a first person narrative which exposes hidden aspects of the self. Can this possibly be what the literary journals mean? If so, that would mean that my own first person narratives could not be sent there.

Yet, I cannot but suspect that there is some other meaning to "confessionals." The way that these journals talk about it (with disgust) is as a type of genre fiction. Can anyone point me to examples of pulp confessionals, so that I can see what they're talking about?

Comments

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

As far as I can tell, what they mean is thinly veiled autobiography of a self-absorbed type. Novels about a sensitive writer exploring his feelings about not getting published for 300 pages, etc.

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

"I WAS A TEENAGE NERF-HERDER!" That's a confessional.

Welcome to LJ!

Yes, but...

[thedarkages]

I'm familiar with that kind of title from pop culture, but what differentiates it from memoir or reflections-on-self of other kinds? Is it simply the sensationalistic topic, e.g., nerf-herding, or is there a definite predetermined or overdetermined relation-towards-self in the pulp genre?

Re: Yes, but...

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

I shall be pleased to deconstruct this for you at a later time, but for now I am wholly absorbed in this riveting video of a woman firing fruit out her ass.