This volume provides an invaluable introduction to the history of criticism on autobiography and gender, and an overview of the major critical debates in the field today. The editors have selected some of the most important articles on the autobiographical tradition, the theory of women's autobiography, the question of genre and sample texts from early and modern autobiography. Thsi volume will help to orient scholars who are either newly considering the field of lifewriting, or those teaching graduate and undergraduate courses on women's autobiography.