Writing Autobiography (ENG3WAB)
2009

Texts

Memories of a Catholic girlhood!$!McCarthy, M.!$! !$!Harcourt!$!
Modern American memoirs!$!Dillard, A. and Conley, C. (eds)!$! !$!Harper Collins!$!1995
Elegy for Iris!$!Bayley, J.!$! !$! St Martin's!$!1999
y separately published work icon My Place Sally Morgan , Fremantle : Fremantle Press , 1987 Z384564 1987 single work autobiography (taught in 30 units)

'In 1982, Sally Morgan travelled back to her grandmother's birthplace. What started as a tentative search for information about her family, turned into an overwhelming emotional and spiritual pilgrimage. My Place is a moving account of a search for truth into which a whole family is gradually drawn, finally freeing the tongues of the author's mother and grandmother, allowing them to tell their own stories.' Source: Publisher's blurb.

Description

Autobiographies have been described as 'artful histories', the border between autobiography and fiction is notoriously slippery. In this unit we will explore how autobiographers use an array of fictional techniques in constructing their histories. Writing autobiography is not just about remembering the narratives of your life; it's about selecting them, shaping them, and finding the words that convey the richness of experience. This is an advanced unit in which we will use a combination of textual anlysis, experimentation and workshop to help you craft sophisticated autobiography and to understand what autobiography can achieve. We will develop an awareness of the demands of writing autobiography, help you to ineegrate critical reading with writing, and encourage you to evaluate critically your own and others' work.

Other Details

Levels: Undergraduate
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