
Women's Lives/Women's Times
New Essays on Auto/Biography
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Points to the many ways in which the study of autobiography can contribute to the theory, practice, and politics of women’s studies as curriculum, and to feminist theory more generally.
Description
Women's Lives/Women's Times reflects the growing interest in life-writing as a basis for both feminist theorizing and women-centered education. It discusses the many ways in which the study of autobiography can contribute to the theory, practice, and politics of women's studies as curriculum, and to feminist theory more generally.
This volume is concerned with the application of theory to text—particularly with the assumptions and discourses of postmodernism—but also in exploring how general theories of the subject do not always fit comfortably with the specifics of autobiographical writing. It also recognizes the challenge women's autobiography offers to theory, taking us, in its complex weave of the personal, the political, and the theoretical, beyond the usual generic and disciplinary boundaries.
Trev Lynn Broughton is Lecturer in Women's Studies at the Centre for Women's Studies, University of York. Linda Anderson is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University, Newcastle Upon Tyne.
Reviews
"What I like most about this book is the fine balance between theory and pedagogy it achieves. The theoretical discussions are carefully developed, thoughtful, and richly provocative, drawing on complex theories to unpack the subtleties and contradictions of women's autobiography in its many forms. Yet the essays themselves are full of valuable and very accessible information that could be used to develop and/or enrich courses in women's autobiography and women's studies in general.
"The book is very interesting to read. The essays raise some fascinating questions about what constitutes women's autobiography, the implications of woman representing themselves as 'subject,' and the role of language in the construction of subject. " — Sandra Jamieson, Drew University