In this workshop course, we will explore, through reading and through writing, the presentation of self in autobiography. A major focus will be on the interweaving of voice, structure, style, and content. As we read the work of ourselves and of others, we will be searching for strategies, rhythms, patterns, devices, which we might adapt--at some stage--to fit our own purposes.

Frequent informal writing will be required, and there will be five formal essays. Students are expected to read and comment constructively on their colleagues' work, and active participation is a requirement of the course. At the end of the semester, students will submit a portfolio of their best work.

Admission is by permission of the instructor. During the registration period, students should leave a sample of their writing, accompanied by a short statement about why they would like to be in this course, at the English Department office, Wright 101.

Our reading list will consist of writings by twentieth-century women, from Mary McCarthy's Memoirs of a Catholic Girlhoood to Dorothy Allison's Two or Three Things I Know For Sure.