After life review: autobiography as ‘art of the future’

When adult students write their life story, they gather selected life experiences and transform these onto the written page. In the course of this literary process they revisit sites of the past and reflect on the meaning of past events; many reconstruct these events from the point of view of the present, and most close their narrative by affirming their identity in the present and envisioning a possible future. Through an analysis of the written life narratives as well as research with one group of writers, a case is made for autobiography's power as an instructional method to bring new light to the past and deepen our sense of self and others.