If every writer necessarily draws on their own life, is any writing outside the realm of a autobiographya (TM)?
The new edition of this classic guide is fully updated to include:
- developments in autobiographical criticism, highlighting major theoretical issues and concepts
- different forms of the genre from confessions and narratives to memoirs and diaries
- uses of the genre in their historical and cultural contexts
- major autobiographical writers including St Augustine, Bunyan, Boswell, Rousseau and Wordsworth, alongside non-canonical autobiographies by women
- twentieth-century autobiography including women's writing, black and postcolonial writing, and personal criticism
- a new chapter a on narrative and new material examining recent trends in autobiography such as blogs, the popularity of literary memoirs and recent developments in theory on testimonial writing.
Combining theoretical discussion with thought-provoking readings of major texts, this is the ideal introduction to the study of a fascinating genre.