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List of contents
Preface to the Teacher.
Preface to the Student.
Acknowledgments.
1. Autobiography and Its Elements.
Language, Culture, Identity.
Mind and Inner Speech.
Meditation.
Journaling.
Memory.
New models.
I remember....
“Coffee.”
Writing with Others.
Beginnings.
I was born....
Five Chapters of Your Life.
Revising Autobiography and Memoir.
2. The Autobiographical “I.”
The Genre of Autobiography.
History of the Word “Autobiography.”
History of the Genre of Autobiography.
Autobiography and Truth.
Forms of Truth.
Memory and Memoir, Fiction and Truth.
Language, and Writing from Names.
Words, Names, Meanings.
Guidelines-Reading the Naming Essay.
Student Examples.
Writing from your name, an acrostic poem.
Places and Names.
3. Crafting Life Narratives: Elements of Stories in Time.
Creating Timelines and Writing Our Lives.
Discussing and Expanding Upon Timelines.
Crafting Autobiographical Narratives-Themes and Phases.
Scene and Summary in Autobiographical Writing.
Reflecting or Musing.
Elements of Narration in Time.
Recognizing Arrangements in Time.
Alternatives to Time Pattern of Organization.
Autobiography as Rhetorical.
The Shape of Stories.
Roles, Functions, and the Shape of Narratives.
Common Roles and Scripts.
Seeing Roles for Yourself.
Roles and Voice.
4. Autobiography, Media and Technology: Old and New.
Websites as New Sites for Life Narratives.
Plans Up Front: Design.
Blogging Your Life: Weblogs as Public Journals.
Blogging: How to Start.
Revisiting Elements of Traditional Autobiography.
Autobiographical Essays and Radio: A Funny Combination.
5. Writing Alternative Futures for the 21st Century “I.”
Imagining a Future.
Autobiographical Manifestoes.
Values Toward the Future.
Embodiment.
Autobiographical Writing, Growth and Development.
Toward a Next Stage of Autobiographical Writing.
Reading Others Autobiographical Writing.
Publishing Your Writing.
Sources for Learning More About Autobiography.
Summary
'The Elements of the Autobiography and Life Narratives' helps writers write their own life stories. It helps students think about how their lives - as well as the texts that they write about them - are socially constructed, showing how writing an autobiography occurs within social and cultural contexts and constraints.
