Autobiography, Confession, Memoir

Catalog description

Memoir, Confession, Autobiography offers an introduction to autobiography as a literary form. Attention is paid to theme (substance abuse and recovery, conversion experiences, ethnic identity as empowerment and trap, sex/gender as the defining fact of selfhood), language (adults trying to write as the children they once were, the ratio of action, description, and dialogue to contemplation, evaluation, musing), groupings (biography of the parent; the sibling-less-favored; the family romance), and the blazing emergence of new autobiography forms (graphic novel, blog, Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook). Authors to be read are J.-J. Rousseau, Marcel Proust, “natural narratives” collected by sociolinguists, Jerry Stahl, Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel, Annie Dlllard, Marguerite Duras, and Assia Djebar.