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AustLit

Texts

Strangeland!$!Tracey Emin!$! !$!Hodder Headline!$!2005
Lucky!$!Alice Sebold!$! !$!Picador!$!2002
Jarhead: A Marines Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles!$!Swofforth, Anthony!$! !$!Pocket Books!$!2005
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings!$!Maya Angelou!$! !$!Virago!$!1988
American Splendor!$!Pekar, Harvey!$! !$!Ballantine Books!$!2003
If This Is a Man[forwardslash]The Truce!$!Levi, Primo!$! !$!Abacus!$!1987
y separately published work icon Many Lifetimes : A Memoir Audrey Evans , Milsons Point : Bantam Books , 2006 Z1266205 2006 single work autobiography (taught in 1 units)

'Growing up in Queensland amid alcoholism, poverty and domestic violence, Audrey Evans was told she would never be as good as white people. But after a lifetime of struggle, she was determined to prove everyone wrong, and at the age of 55 she attended university for the first time. There she would not just get a piece of paper but would change her life. Many Lifetimes is Audrey's extraordinary true story and a powerful reminder that it's never too late to change your life.' (Publisher's description)
y separately published work icon Shaping Lives : Reflections on Biography Ian Donaldson (editor), Peter Read (editor), James Walter (editor), Canberra : Australian National University, Humanities Research Centre , 1992 Z1352068 1992 anthology poetry (taught in 2 units)
y separately published work icon Hoi Polloi Craig Sherborne , Melbourne : Black Inc. , 2005 Z1214808 2005 single work autobiography (taught in 4 units)

'The hilariously compelling memoir that was hailed as an instant classic.

'Hoi Polloi recounts a childhood spent on racetracks and in bars, as the author’s parents struggle to climb the social ladder. It begins in 1968 in the small town of Heritage, New Zealand. Living above the bar of his family’s hotel, the young Craig is exposed to violence, drinking and murky racial politics. His parents, whom Sherborne thinks of as “Winks” and “Heels” in his eccentric personal language, decide to sell the hotel and move to Sydney, Australia – which they imagine as New Zealand’s “England”, a place of boundless wealth, prestige and social opportunities.

'Once in Sydney, the family begins a love affair with the racing scene. Written with extraordinary sympathy and verve, Hoi Polloi is the portrait of an extraordinary childhood – brutal, poignant and unforgettable.' (Publication summary)
y separately published work icon Ducks on the Pond Anne Summers , Ringwood : Viking , 1999 Z1335054 1999 single work autobiography (taught in 2 units)

Degrees

Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Education (Secondary)

Description

How is the subject embodied in the text? How are gender, sexuality, race & class inscribed in the autobiographical mode? This course explores practices of contemporary first-person narration through diaries, memoirs, confessional, testimonio & case histories.

Assessment

Tutorial Presentation

10%

In Class Quiz

30%

Research Essay

60%

Supplementary Texts

Barros, Carolyn A. Autobiography: Narrative of Transformation. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, c.1998

Benstock, Shari, ed. The Private Self: Theory and Practice of Womens Autobiographical Writings. London: Routledge, 1988

Bregman, Lucy and Sara Thiermann. First Person Mortal: Personal Narratives of Illness, Dying and Grief. New York, NY: Paragon House, 1995

Colmer, John. Australian Autobiography: The Personal Quest. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1989

Dalziell, Rosamund. Shameful Autobiographies: Shame in Contemporary Australian Autobiographies and Culture. Carlton, Vic: Melbourne University Press, 1999

Donaldson, Ian, et al., eds. Shaping Lives: Reflections on Biography. Canberra : Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University, 1992

Eakin, Paul John. Fictions in Autobiography: Studies in the Art of Self Invention. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, c.1985

Eakin, Paul John. How Our Lives Become Stories: Making Selves. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999

Eakin, Paul John. Touching the World: Reference in Autobiography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992

Egan, Susanna. Mirror Talk: Genres of Crisis in Contemporary Autobiography. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999

Evans, Mary. Missing Persons: The Impossibility of Auto/Biography. London: Routledge, 1999

Henke, Suzette A. Shattered Subjects: Trauma and Testimony in Womens Life-Writing. New York, NY: St Martins, 1998

Jay, Paul. Being in the Text: Self-Representation from Wordsworth to Roland Barthes. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984

Marcus, Laura. Auto/biographical Discourses: Theory, Criticism, Practice. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994

McCooey, David. Artful Histories: Modern Australian Autobiography. Melbourne, Vic: Cambridge University Press, 1996

Miller, Nancy K. Getting Personal: Feminist Occasions and Other Autobiographical Acts. New York: Routledge, 1991

Perreault, Jeanne Martha. Writing Selves: Contemporary Feminist Autobiography. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, c.1995

Smith, Sidonie, ed. Women, Autobiography, Theory: A Reader. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998

Smith, Sidonie and Julia Watson, eds. Getting a Life : Everyday Uses of Autobiography. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, 1996

Other Details

Current Campus: Ipswich
Levels: Undergraduate
Coordinator:
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