Product Description

An indispensable introduction to the study of autobiography as well as a historical overview of autobiographical writing from St Augustine to the present day.

Product Details

• Published on: 2001-03-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 176 pages

Review
How do we define autobiography as a genre?

From the Back Cover
Autobiography examines the theory and practice of autobiographical writing from St Augustine to the present.
Linda Anderson offers a lucid discussion of:
developments in autobiographical criticism in the last thirty years and the main theoretical issues and concepts in this area
the different forms of the genre, from confessions and narratives to memoirs and diaries
uses of the genre in their historical and cultural contexts
the major writers of the historical tradition of autobiography, including St Augustine, Bunyan, Boswell, Rousseau and Wordsworth, as well as non-canonical texts by women
twentieth-century autobiography, including women's writing, black and postcolonial writing, personal criticism and testimonial writing
the ideological assumptions about the nature of the self that underlie autobiographical texts.
Combining theoretical discussion with thought-provoking readings of major texts, this is the ideal introduction to the study of a fascinating genre.

About the Author
Linda Anderson is Professor of Modern English and American Literature at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Her recent publications include Women and Autobiography in the Twentieth Century (1997), Women's Lives/Women's Times (edited with Trev Broughton, 1996) and Territories of Desire in Queer Culture (edited with David Alderson, 2000).