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EL55C2: WRITING THE SELF (2022-2023)

Last modified: 31 Jul 2023 11:19


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 Aberdeen Sustained Study No
Co-ordinators
  • Dr Elizabeth Elliott

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

  • Any Postgraduate Programme

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

Oral Presentation: Individual

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 20
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

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Feedback

Oral feedback provided.

Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
Sorry, we don't have this information available just now. Please check the course guide on MyAberdeen or with the Course Coordinator

Creative Writing Portfolio/2 Critical Essays/1 Critical Essay and 1 Critical Commentary

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 80
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

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Feedback

Students may opt to produce a piece of life-writing with critical commentary in place of either i) the 2000-word mid-term critical essay (800-word critical commentary, 2000-word total, 35%) or ii) the 3000-word end-of-course essay (1000-word critical commentary, 3000-word total, 45%).

The critical commentary should discuss how the production of your own piece of life-writing contributes to your understanding of theories and practices of life-writing explored within the course. This assessment will be marked as a piece of practice-led research, rather than as a piece of creative writing, with attention to how life-writing and commentary function together to show evidence of insight into the issues explored on the course, and of relevant reading.

Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
Sorry, we don't have this information available just now. Please check the course guide on MyAberdeen or with the Course Coordinator

Formative Assessment

There are no assessments for this course.

Resit Assessments

Essay resubmission 3,500 words

Assessment Type Summative Weighting 100
Assessment Weeks Feedback Weeks

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Feedback Written
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
Sorry, we don't have this information available just now. Please check the course guide on MyAberdeen or with the Course Coordinator

Course Learning Outcomes

Knowledge LevelThinking SkillOutcome
ConceptualUnderstandStudents will demonstrate understanding of autobiographical texts from multiple periods, and their relation to historical and social contexts.
ProceduralAnalyseStudents will understand the difference between multiple forms of life writing and the relevant theories used to discuss them.
ProceduralCreateIn written and oral forms, students will produce analyses of chosen texts demonstrating an awareness of the ways gender, class, and race impact the creation of autobiographical texts.
ConceptualApplyIn written and oral forms, students will demonstrate the ability to apply theories of life-writing to chosen texts.

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