ABSTRACT
First Published in 1995. Autobiography is commonly understood in terms of giving readers insight into the private lives of unique individuals, but in recent years the autobiographical project has absorbed a wide variety of social concerns. The contributors to this book explore a range of the uses of autobiography from the nineteenth-century to the present day, and from Africa, USA, the Middle East, France, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The chapters draw on a number of approaches, including historical and literary methods to represent the autobiography's purpose of establishing communities of interest and social change.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part Chapter 2|18 pages
Theories of Autobiography
chapter Two|7 pages
Why does an author who apparently draws so much on autobiography seem committed to ‘alienating’ the reader?
part Chapter 3|25 pages
Gender, Militancy and Wartime
part Chapter 4|17 pages
Making Sense of the Self: Cultural Identities Under Pressure
part Chapter 5|16 pages
Constructing the Self, Inventing Africa
part Chapter 6|21 pages
Autobiography, Authenticity and Nineteenth-century Ideas of Race
part Chapter 7|18 pages
Sisterhood and Self-censorship in the Nineteenth Century
part Chapter 8|23 pages
The Educative ‘I’ in Nineteenth-century Women's Autobiographies
chapter Chapter 9|12 pages
Autobiography and Educational Change
part Chapter 10|24 pages
Life Histories, Adult Learning and Identity