Virginia Woolf, Moments of Being
Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas
Sigmund Freud, Dora
Course reader
Auntie Rita
Canberra
:
Aboriginal Studies Press
,
1994
Z126649
1994
single work
biography
(taught in 9 units)
"Most people call me Auntie Rita, whites as well as Aboriginal people. Auntie is a term of respect of our older women folk. You don't have to be blood-related or anything. Everyone is kin. That's a beautiful thing because in this way no one is ever truly alone, they always have someone they can turn to."
Rita Huggins told her memories to her daughter Jackie, and some of their conversation is in this book. We witness their intimacy, their similarities and their differences, the '"fighting with their tongues". Two voices, two views on a shared life.' (Source: Publisher's blurb)
In this course students will read a range of life narratives in the context of theories of self-representation. The course will focus on variations in the genre of self-writing, and will examine the evolution of autobiographical texts - and the changing significance attributed to the speaking "I" - from St Augustine's Confessions of the 4th century to contemporary models of self-writing. Set texts will include not only those conventionally understood as autobiography but also those which deliberately blur the line between biography and autobiography (such as Gertrude Stein's Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas) and those which are collaboratively produced (such as oral histories). The course will allow students the option of producing a piece of self-writing as part of their assessment. They will develop their skills in reading texts within the context of cultural and literary history, and have the opportunity to explore intersections between critical and creative writing.
