This collection of essays focuses exclusively on the contribution of American woman to the writing of autiobiography. The authors trace editions of women's life-writing through three and a half centuries, from the narratives of Puritan woman to contemporary multicultural literature. Contributers to the volume include scholars such as: Sidonie Smith, Catharine Stimpson, Ann Gordon, Mary Mason, Nancy Walker, Katheleen Sands, Arlyn Diamond and others whose essays all appear here for the first time.

Using autobiographical sources such as letters, diaries, and oral testimonies, the contributors to this volume suggest possibilities for approaching these materials as literature and introducing them into the classroom. The appendices include two previously unpublished narratives: the diary of Amelia Buss and the letters of Delina Hopper.

'Gendered Subjects' combines a number of classic statements on feminist pedagogy from the 1970s with recent original essays making significant and original contributions to the field.