This module examines a body of writing about the self from a range of twentieth-century American authors. The issues explored include:

how subjectivity is shaped by social structures, norms, and expectations
how narrative conventions influence the representation of lived experience
the development of a tradition of autobiographical writing by women
The role of autobiography in giving voice to marginalized, deviant, or oppositional subjectivities

Authors studied my include Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, Annie Dillard, Richard Rodriguez, Tim O'Brien, and Elizabeth Wurtzel.

First essay [Learning Outcome 1]
Second essay [Learning Outcomes 2,3,4,5]

The module will be taught via a mixture of lectures, independent study groups, student-led seminars, and tutor led seminars.

Michael Eric Dyson, Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X (Oxford University Press, 1995)
Paul John Eakin, ed. American Autobiography: Retrospect and Prospect (University of Wisconsin Press, 1991)
James Goodwin, Autobiography: The Self Made Text (Twayne, 1993)
Crispin Sartwell, Act Like You Know: African American Autiobiography and White Identity (University of Chicago Press, 1998)
Sidonie Smith, ed. Women, Autobigraphy, Theory: A Reader (University of Wisconsin P, 1998)

Library holdings, VCR/DVD, OHP