Theories of autobiography -- Gender, militancy and wartime -- Making sense of the self : cultural identities under pressure -- Constructing the self, inventing Africa -- Autobiography, authenticity and nineteenth-century ideas of race -- Sisterhood and self-censorship in the nineteenth century -- The educative 'I' in nineteenth-century women's autobiographies -- Autobiography and educational change -- Life histories, adult learning and identity -- Assumed identities : feminism, autobiography and performance art -- There are stories and Stories : an autobiography workshop -- Conclusion: Autobiography and the politics of 'the personal'.