French 351WA - Women's Autobiog. Narrative

This course will examine contemporary autobiographical narratives written by women, with a particular focus on authors whose works include multiple autobiographical texts of various genres: fictional, nonfictional, and semifictional. We will analyze the ways in which these authors present their life stories, especially the traumatic or secret episodes, and the ways in which their works discuss the process of that presentation and of memory itself. Themes that are common to these autobiographical texts include: relationships with family, education, sexuality, class, and love. In addition to literary texts, we will analyze in detail several autobiographical films made by women.