ENGL 389.2

This course exmaines the life-writing of women authors of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We will study theories of autobiography; beginning with Georges Gusdorf and continuing with important feminist theorists of autobiography such as Shari Benstock; Julia Watson; Sidonie Smith; and Susanna Egan. With this theory in mind; we will consider texts such as Helen Keller's The Story of My Life; Margaret Laurences's Dance on the Earth; Jane Goodall's My Life with Chimpanzees; Gloria Anzadua's Borderlands/La Frontera; And Sarah Leavitt's graphic memoir; Tangles. Topics to be discussed include women and subjectivity; the body in women's memoir; sexuality; and the construction of motherhood; disability; and race. Prerequisite: 6 credits of 200 level English