Code 24192
Level of study Second Year
Credit value 20
Semester 1 and 2
Pre-requisite modules none
Other pre-requisites none
This module will explore the different theoretical and practical approaches to the study of life writing within the context of Contemporary Spain. The course will include readings of biographies, autobiographies, life testimonies, childhood memoirs, epistolaries, confessional writing, political testaments (mainly prison texts) and certain types of travel writing (Spanish exiles' accounts of their journey to America).The module will first trace theoretical debates around the different genres and sub-genres encompassing the label "Life Writing". Then it will move on to examine the relationship between life, history, politics, gender and fiction through the study of the selected texts. The course will provide an understanding of main aesthetic and historical developments in Spain during the 20th century as well as a consideration of their corresponding impact on the process of writing individual and collective experiences