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MA in Biography: Autobiography

Course leader: Professor Jane Ridley
Autumn Term (15 units)

This is a 1-term course designed to offer a systematic understanding and critical awareness of Autobiography and Life Writing. This course is taught in collaboration with academics from English Literature, reflecting the strong literary element in this subject. Students are introduced to various types of autobiographical writing, from diaries and memoirs to literary autobiography, autobiographical fiction and the personal memoir.

Topics studied include:

• What is autobiography?
• Victorian autobiography
• Fathers and sons: Edmund Gosse and John Stuart Mill
• Diaries: Samuel Pepys
• Romantic autobiography: Dorothy Wordsworth
• The Political Memoir
• Celebrity autobiography and the ghost writer
• The personal memoir

Assessment : Term paper of 3,000 - 5,000 words.