Life writing matters in Europe

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Both the practice and study of life writing flourish worldwide, especially since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. This major watershed in the history of Europe has generated intensive memory work through life writing, in the former satellite states of the Soviet Union and far beyond. Bringing together the work of scholars from a wide range of European countries, this volume investigates cross-cultural understandings of self and identity. Because of its familiarity with the crossing of linguistic, cultural, economic and political borders, the loose patchwork known as ‘Europe’ provides a fruitful starting point for comparative research into auto/biographical writing. From a wide range of scholarly disciplines and highlighting auto/biographical practices in western and eastern, old and new or future parts of Europe, the essays in this volume discuss the construction of individual, cultural or political identities within a changing landscape from the late eighteenth century until the present. As such they represent an important addition to the prevalent Anglo-American autobiography scholarship.