Autobiography

This wide-ranging introduction to the study of autobiography offers a historical overview of autobiographical writing from St Augustine to the present day. Autobiography follows the important developments in autobiographical criticism in the last thirty years, paying particular attention to psychoanalytic, poststructualist and feminist approaches. The author: * outlines the main theoretical issues and concepts of this difficult area * looks at the different forms from confessions to narratives to memoirs to diaries * considers the major writers of this historical tradition looks at the ideological assumptions about the nature of the self * explores 'other' subjects - with readings of women's writing and black and postcolonial writing.