Monash University: University Handbooks: Postgraduate Handbook 2002: Units indexed by faculty
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Master of Biography and Life Writing


General information

Course code: To be advised + Course fees: Local students -- HECS based; international students -- $13,500 + Coordinator: Barbara Caine
This course will explore many of the theoretical and practical issues involved in reading and writing biographies and life stories. It will include practical questions about the accessing of resources and the ways to utilise and design interviews. It will address many of the ethical, moral and legal questions involved in writing biography and life stories. It will also offer students an understanding of some of the ways in which psychoanalysis, feminist theory and post-colonial studies have affected the understanding of biography and life writing. Students will explore the history of biography and autobiography; and some of the different ways in which biographies have been constructed and written. The use of life stories in history and sociology will also be discussed. The course will also involve research and writing a biography or a life story.
The classes will be taught on the Clayton campus. The duration of the course is one-and-a-half years full-time or three years part-time. Students who have completed 24 points of the Master of Biography and Life Writing may be offered an exit award of a Graduate Certificate of Arts. Students who have completed 48 points of the Master of Biography and Life Writing may be offered an exit award of a Graduate Diploma in Biography and Life Writing
Students will be required to take three units offered at level four, the level-five core unit HYM5270 (Research methods in biography and life writing), a level-five elective not taken at level four and HYM5480 (Research project). Graduation with a Master of Biography and Life Writing will require students to gain a credit average overall

Entry requirements

The completion of a bachelors degree in any approved discipline (with a credit average) or a bachelors degree in any approved discipline with demonstrable relevant research experience.

Course structure

Level four

All students will be required to take three of the following level-four 12-point units:

Or one other approved 12-point unit

Level five

All students will be required to take the following level-five core unit:

and one of the following level-five electives not taken at level four:

plus

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