Course Description
In this course, we shall explore the Anglo-American tradition of women’s autobiographical writings. Anglo-American here denotes space (U.S. and British Empire) rather than race, ethnicity, or nation. You will gain an insight into characteristics, historical traditions, and a variety of medial forms (i.e. books, tracts, personal blogs, twitter etc.) within women’s life writing. The range of set texts starts in the seventeenth-century and moves all the way into the twenty-first and includes women from all spheres of life (British and U.S. white elite, frontier, Native American, Asian American, Indian etc.). You will also be able to work with texts of your own choosing and actively engage with the choices and work of your fellow students. In the end, you will be able to point out collective characteristics of women’s personal narratives as well as cultural and historical differences.
Required Reading:
“Ancestry and Early Life in Boston,” Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. New York: Henry Holt & Company, [1771–1790] 1916.
“Preface,” in Jelinek, Estelle C. The Tradition of Women’s Autobiography: From antiquity to the present. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1986.
“What a Piece of Work is “Woman”! An Introduction,” in American Women’s Autobiography. Fea(s)ts of Memory. Ed. By Margo Culley. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1992. 3–21.
A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, 1682 (1-10th remove).
Barrett, Elizabeth, “My Own Character” (1818) and “Glimpses into my Own Life and Literary Character” (1820), in Two Autobiographical Essays by Elisabeth Barrett, ed. William S. Peterson, Browning Institute Studies II (New York, 1974).
Davis, Rebecca Harding, (1831–1910). Bits of Gossip. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1904. 1-140.
Fanny Burney. The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay (1778–1787). Section 7.
LeJeune, Philippe, “The Autobiographical Pact,” 1975. 1–8.
