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“Self-exploitation” as a book category gathers works that probe how individuals become both labor and manager of themselves, turning time, identity, emotions, and bodies into extractable resources under social, economic, or cultural pressure. These books—spanning memoir, essay, reportage, sociology, and autofiction—interrogate hustle culture, the creator and gig economies, academic and creative precarity, wellness and productivity industries, and the commodification of authenticity. They examine blurred lines between choice and coercion, empowerment and extraction, performance and personhood, revealing the hidden costs of overwork, self-branding, unpaid emotional labor, and constant optimization. Often combining personal narrative with structural critique, the genre surfaces the bargains people make to “succeed,” the burnouts and moral compromises that follow, and the possibilities for resistance through boundaries, rest, solidarity, and collective care.

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