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Reading Autobiography: A Guide for Interpreting Life Narratives
Autobiographical writing is redefining the meaning of narrative, as the recent explosion of memoirs by writers such as Frank McCourt, Mary Karr, Dave Eggers, and Kathryn Harrison suggests. But what's involved in bringing these narratives into the classroom-in creative writing, cultural studies, women's and ethnic studies, and social science and literature courses? How may
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Paperback
,
320 pages
Published
January 2nd 2002
by Univ Of Minnesota Press
(first published 2001)
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Community Reviews
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This is a good resource for anyone new to autobiographies, particular for classes. It informs on autobiographical writings, instructs on how to read autobiographies, and even contains exercises for better understanding. Of course, it definitely has that textbook 'feel', so it's not the kind of book you would read for personal enjoyment.
Aug 15, 2010
Jessica
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
biography-memoir
,
books-and-words
I wrote my master's thesis on how gender is represented in contemporary memoirs written by women. I could not have written it without this book - comprehensive, readable, and full of detailed examples. Not for the layman by any means, but if literary theory as it applies to self-writing is of interest to you, this is an excellent place to start!
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Just got this in the mail. Looks excellent. If I were to teach a course on memoir/autobiography, I'd use this--just enough theory for an upperclass undergrad, and well written.
This book is repetitive to a fault and somewhat obvious. It does bring up very interesting and unique ideas, but it doesn't grasp the readers.
I read this book fir my Mater's class. Too much reference to scholary stuff. Luckily there is a tool kit at the rnd.
A useful starting point for reading autobiography...especially the toolkit in the final pages.
Useful book for my master dissertation; well written.
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Sidonie Smith is the Martha Guernsey Colby Collegiate Professor of English and Women's Studies at the University of Michigan.
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