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Auto/biography (ENG10164)
Summer Semester / 2009

Texts

y separately published work icon Tiger's Eye : A Memoir Inga Clendinnen , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 2000 Z282560 2000 selected work autobiography short story prose (taught in 6 units)
y separately published work icon All My Mob Ruby Langford Ginibi , St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2007 Z1381114 2007 selected work autobiography (taught in 3 units)

'This ... collection of stories features a foreword by Dr Pam Johnston that places Ruby’s anecdotes in the context of a country which seems incapable of healing its past or of creating a better future for Indigenous people. Featuring the best stories from Ruby’s Real Deadly, plus many unpublished gems dating as far back as 1992, All My Mob’s portrayal of family life, ‘home’, and life as an Aborigine in today’s Australia is fascinating, often confronting and unforgettable.' (Source: UQP website: www.uqp.uq.edu.au)

y separately published work icon Pleasure and Pain : My Life Chrissy Amphlett , Larry Writer , Sydney : Hodder Headline Australia , 2005 Z1227969 2005 single work autobiography (taught in 1 units)
y separately published work icon Romulus, My Father Raimond Gaita , Melbourne : Text Publishing , 1998 Z827978 1998 single work biography (taught in 3 units)

'Romulus Gaita fled his home in his native Yugoslavia at the age of thirteen, and came to Australia with his young wife Christina and their infant son Raimond soon after the end of World War II.

'Tragic events were to overtake the boy’s life, but Raimond Gaita has an extraordinary story to tell about growing up with his father amid the stony paddocks and flowing grasses of country Australia.

'Written simply and movingly, Romulus, My Father is about how a compassionate and honest man taught his son the meaning of living a decent life. It is about passion, betrayal and madness, about friendship and the joy and dignity of work, about character and fate, affliction and spirituality.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Text Publishing).

y separately published work icon My Life as a Traitor Zarah Ghahramani , Robert Hillman , Carlton North : Scribe , 2007 Z1399785 2007 single work autobiography (taught in 1 units) Zarah Ghahramani was born in Tehran in 1981, and in 2001, her life changed suddenly when she was arrested and charged with 'inciting crimes against the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran'. - from back cover
Two Lives Gertrude and Alice!$!Malcolm, Janet!$! !$!!$!
y separately published work icon Before You Met Me Alan Close , North Sydney : Random House Australia , 2008 Z1468173 2008 single work autobiography (taught in 1 units) 'No matter how hard he tried, Alan Close couldn't stay in a relationship. Then, at the age of 43, after yet another breakup, he decided he was going to find out what was going wrong and make a change. What followed was a painful yet ultimately revelatory process of looking back into the past - where memories of his childhood and early relationships where darkened by a long-forgotten secret he had failed to admit even to himself. Beautifully written, in a narrative that is utterly compelling, this is a non-fiction first - a male memoir about relationships that is impossible to put down, sure to hold up a mirror to male readers and provide a rare insight to women.' (Publisher's blurb)
y separately published work icon Delinquent Angel Diana Georgeff , North Sydney : Random House , 2007 Z1404941 2007 single work biography (taught in 1 units)

'Shelton Lea was born secretly, and adopted in the most bizarre circumstances into a high profile family. Growing up he was told he would never inherit the family fortune; that he had been adopted as a playmate for the natural children. Here began a life of extremes and excesses.

'Family dynamics produced disastrous outcomes and his adoptive mother placed him in a psychiatric institution at the age of three. He escaped from boys' homes, lived with gypsies, Aborigines, in doorways, in parks and went to prisons along the east coast of Australia. But genetics propelled his ascendance. He was born with tremendous gifts and when, as a teenager in a putrid lock-up, he discovered the writings of Ezra Pound, he knew the path his life would take.

'Reports of the legendary Shelton Lea spread. He was a romantic, bohemian outlaw - charming, insolent and contemptuous of authority. He stepped far beyond the bounds of propriety, encouraging comparisons to Rimbaud and Villon.

'When he died he took his wizard words, his mesmerising performance, his rabble rousing, and he was hailed as a seer of our age.' (Publisher's blurb)

y separately published work icon Unpolished Gem Unpolished Gem : My Mother, My Grandmother, and Me Alice Pung , Melbourne : Black Inc. , 2006 Z1301370 2006 single work autobiography (taught in 6 units)

Unpolished Gem tells the story of growing up with a Chinese-Cambodian family in Australia, Alice dives headfirst into schooling, romance and the getting of wisdom. Meanwhile, her mother becomes an Aussie Battler - an outworker, that is, her father starts up a chain of electrical appliance stores, and her grandmother blesses Father Government every day for giving old people money. (Back cover blurb).


Elements Of Autobiography AndLife Narratives!$!Hobbs, C.!$! !$!!$!

Description

Introduces students to the study and practice of auto/biography. Will explore a range of texts of the genres and those contemporary theories of the subject which are so pertinent to the writing and reading of auto/biography. Students will have the opportunity to write an auto/biographical piece.

Other Details

Current Campus: Lismore, Distance Education
Levels: Undergraduate
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