Course code: 3075 + Clayton campus + Mid-year entry available + Course 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.
Students will be required to take three units offered at level 4, the level 5 core unit HYM5270 (Research methods in biography and life writing), a level 5 elective not taken at level 4 and HYM5480 (Research project). Graduation with a Master of Biography and Life Writing will require students to gain a credit average overall
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.
After successful completion of 24 points, students may be offered an exit award of a Graduate Certificate of Arts, or a Graduate Diploma in Biography and Life Writing after successful completion of 48 points.
Students complete 72 points, including three level 4 units, one level 5 core unit and a research project from the list below (note that students may not take a unit at both level 4 and level 5):
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