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EL55C2: WRITING THE SELF (2018-2019)

Last modified: 22 May 2019 17:07


Course Overview

What is at stake in writing autobiographical texts? What are the forms writers have used to write themselves? Is autobiography simply, as Oscar Wilde states, the lowest form of criticism? Looking at a range of texts from the Medieval period to the present, with a special focus on women’s writing, this course examines the formal, ethical, political, and aesthetic choices writers make when writing themselves.

Course Details

Study Type Postgraduate Level 5
Session Second Sub Session Credit Points 30 credits (15 ECTS credits)
Campus Old Aberdeen Sustained Study No
Co-ordinators
  • Dr Elizabeth Elliott

What courses & programmes must have been taken before this course?

  • Any Postgraduate Programme (Studied)

What other courses must be taken with this course?

None.

What courses cannot be taken with this course?

None.

Are there a limited number of places available?

No

Course Description

Life writing lies between literature and history; it often challenges the distinction between fact and fiction. It can be a form of political subversion, or a form of private reflection. This course explores a wide range of life writing, from the Medieval period to the present, in order to look at the formal, ethical, political, and aesthetic choices writers make when writing themselves. The course particularly focuses on women’s life writing; incorporating a variety of material from diaries and poems to essays and experimental fiction, it showcases both the challenges and rewards of this most private, most public form of expression. Selected authors may include Margery Kempe, Frederick Douglass, Virginia Woolf, and Alison Bechdel.


Contact Teaching Time

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

Teaching Breakdown

More Information about Week Numbers


Details, including assessments, may be subject to change until 31 August 2023 for 1st half-session courses and 22 December 2023 for 2nd half-session courses.

Summative Assessments

1 mid-term essay 2,500 words (30%)

1 end-of-course essay 3,500 words (60%)

Presentation (10%)

 

Formative Assessment

There are no assessments for this course.

Feedback

Written and oral feedback provided on the mid-term essay and end-of-course essay; oral feedback provided on the presentation.

Course Learning Outcomes

None.

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