Cirrus@Austlit

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.