This course reflects the wide interest in auto/biography studies in the English-speaking world in the new millenium. Its goal is to explore a diversity of life-writing texts from colonial and postcolonial places and times, and to map some of the key theoretical and critical developments and debates within this emerging field. 

A variety of theories and critical approaches to life-writing will be explored, referencing postcolonialism, postmodernism, feminist theory, and auto/biography studies, amongst others. 

A selection of life-writing will be studied, from classic slave narratives to contemporary, accounts by human rights activists; from stories of childhood to narratives of illness and healing, and from "imposter" texts to works by or about celebrated writers. Theoretical and critical texts will also be sampled as we consider the postmodern fluidity of literary genres.