Personal narratives or 'life writing' were amongst the first Western literary genres to be used and transformed by Indigenous writers, and Indigenous personal and family stories and histories continue to be an inherently political act, disrupting non-Indigenous narratives about Australian history and current realities. In this unit, students will engage critically and analytically with the conventions of creative non-fiction in the form of personal narrative. The will conduct advanced textual analysis of writing in the genres of biography, autobiography and memoir, and will research and develop their writing 'voice' for telling their own and other people's stories. They will gain insights into the ethical and cultural issues involved in writing personal narratives, and will apply these insights to their own writing.
