Department of English

This course looks at the cultural changes which have produced an unpredented number of women's autobiographies through the lens of the autobiographies themselves as well as some secondary texts from feminist theory and cultural studies. How does writing about one's life, as a woman, differ from the same project undertaken by a man? Do these differences change over time? Looking at a wide variety of texts (essays, autobiographical fiction, films, television "events," performance art), we will consider the breakthrough figures of the early 20th century and their legacy as we approach the 21st.