HYM5280

Reading and Writing Biography and Life Stories (12 points)

(ARTS)

Leader: Professor Barbara Caine

Offered:
Clayton Second semester 2003 (Day)

Synopsis: This unit focuses on the writing of biography as a literary form, including questions about the relationship between biography and fiction; the many new forms of life story developed through feminist and postcolonial theory and through work in memory and testimony; and the uses of life story in case studies in the social sciences. The unit will deal with biography as metaphor, the importance of cultural context in reading and writing biography, life stories and cultural context, ways of analysing the authorial presence and the use of psychoanalysis in biography and life writing.

Assessment: Seminar presentation and paper (2,000 words): 20% + Group seminar presentation and paper (1000 words): 20% + Essay analysing the changing forms of biographical writing from the mid 19th century to the present and critically assessing the merits and the problems of different forms (5-6,000 words): 50% + General seminar performance: 10%

Contact Hours: 2 hours per week