Cirrus@Austlit

Compelling autobiographical writing requires a mysterious and exciting combination of craft, authorial 'page presence' (the autobiographer's equivalent of 'stage presence') and communicative passion. Successful autobiography can take myriad forms: extended or relatively brief; comic and/or tragic; stylistically conventional or experimental; introspective or more outward-turned; highly personal and/or inclined to see the self as a culturally shaped and embedded being. This subject does not encourage you to adopt any particular template of autobiographical writing but rather to discover what sort of autobiographical writer you are or wish to be. Through workshops, critical discussions of course autobiographical texts, feedback on written work and other means the subject aims to help you find your autobiographical 'voice' and to master the aspects of autobiographical craft that will enable you to tell a sophisticated and compelling autobiographical story.