CRWH and CPWH In House Module Catalogue - Feb 2019-1 (1)

PW2218 Life Writing & Biography
ASSESSMENT: 2000 word piece of Biographical writing + 2000 word research project
POSSIBLE TUTOR(S): Richard Kelly
Everyone’s life is a story worth telling. The module offers students the chance to work in the mode of
autobiographical/memoir writing, drawing on their own life or that of someone in their family; and in
biography, researching and developing their own study of a public figure, past or present. They will study the
writing techniques that enable real lives to be recreated on the page. They will look at a range of the finest
writings in both genres, and will analyse these in terms of form and also cultural/historical context, in order
to develop sensitivity to how life narratives are represented differently at different times. The ethical
dilemmas and psychological dimensions of writing a life – one’s own or someone else’s – will be explored
carefully. The assessed stages of the module will see students refining their own work into a sustained piece
of life-writing, as well as practising sophisticated research, planning and development skills for the structural
outline of a longer life-writing project.