Adopting a boldly innovative approach to women’s autobiographical writing, Françoise Lionnet here examines the rhetoric of self-portraiture in works by authors who are bilingual or multilingual or of mixed races or cultures. Autobiographical Voices offers incisive readings of texts by Zora Neale Hurston, Maya Angelou, Marie Cardinal, Maryse Condé, Marie-Thérèse Humbert, Augustine, and Nietzsche.

"

Autobiographical Voices is an innovative, highly suggestive study of autobiographical writing that cuts across traditional boundaries of canon and culture, gender, genre, and academic discipline. Lionnet’s purpose is to break down accepted polarities, opening up the field of literary studies to a cultural diversity that she herself has incorporated in both her subject matter and methodology. Although a scholarly work, this book also expresses a forthright message about freedom of expression, especially that of groups silenced by political and cultural oppression.