Women and Autobiography in African History

This graduate colloquium focuses on the place of women in modern African history. We focus specifically on the literary techniques that African women have used to represent themselves to the outside world. In the course of ten in-depth seminars, we will intensively read a number of African women-authored autobiographies and biographies from the twentieth century to the present day. We look at the auto/biographies of prominent as well as not-so-well-known African women: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Wangari Maathai's autobiographies will be read alongside the life stories of more "ordinary" women. The seminar straddles history, literary theory and gender studies, and it encourages students to think critically about the creative ways in which African women have portrayed themselves to their intimates and their families as well as to the wider world.