Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; Foreword; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Theoretical Perspective on Autobioography: Christa Wolf's Nachdenken uber Christa T., Kindheitsmuster and Ein Tagim Jahr.; 1.1 The 'Orgins' of Autobiography: Saint Augustine's Confessions; 1.2 Variation on the "model": Saint Teresa's Book of Her Life; 1.3 The other "original": Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions; 1.4 Christa Wolf's Links to Romantic Self-Expression; 1.5 Influential Theorists of Autobiography: Georges Gusdorf and Philippe Lejeune.

1.6 Deconstructive Reaction to Gusdorf and Lejeune: Paul de Man1.7 Writing Autobiography Against Itself: Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes; 1.8 "What is an author?"of Autobiography; 1.9 Feminism and Autobiography; 1.10 Nachdenken uber Christa T., Kindheitsmuster and Ein Tag im Jahr and the Autobiographical Tradition; 2. Beginning Autobiography in Nachdenken uber Christa T.; 2.1 Early Reception of Nachdenken uber Christa T.; 2.2 A New Literary Form; 2.3 "Authentic" or "Fictional" Figures?; 2.4 The Autobiographical Turning Point; 2.5 The Association between Death and Autobiography.

2.6 Objections to an 'autobiographical' reading of Nachdenken uber Christa T.2.7 "Die Schwierigkeit 'Ich' zu sagen"- The Claim to Female Aesthetic and its Link with Autobiography; 3. Kindheitsmuster as Autobiography: Within the Tradition and Without: Continuity between the Past and the Present; 3.1 Early Debate about Kindheitsmuster; 3.2 How does the narrator relate to the child in Kindheitsmuster?; 3.3 Closeness and distance to the mother; 3.4 Humour and Reference to Sexuality as Essentially Related to Autobiography; 3.5 Lenka: The Generational Legacy.

3.6 Kindheitsmuster: Inverting the Tradition4. Ein Tag im Jahr: Journal Writing As Radical Autobiographical Project; 4.1Tepid Reception; 4.2 Christa Wold Eine Biographie: Cult portrait; 4.3 Ein Tag im Jahr: Journal Revisited; 4.4 Cult Portrait Reversed; 4.5 Self-Presentation Pre- and Post-Wende; 4.6 Hinertext; Conclusion; Bibliography of Cited Works; Index.