This thesis consists of (Vol. 1) the critical component and (Vol. 2) the auto/biographical-based novel TREASURE. The title of the overall project is TREASURE: An Exploration in the Writing of the Self. The critical component addresses issues of feminist theorists seeking a 'new' space for women's auto/biographical writing, and includes a discussion of the novel TREASURE. The project digresses from the conventional doctoral thesis and reflects the
central underlying assumption in my research: women's writing has been relegated to boundaries and excluded from canonical literature; the underlying notion being, that women's writing is considered by male guardians of canonical
literature to be inferior to that of their male counterparts. The conventional thesis format in itself reflects the institutionalising of literature (and learning) as well as the act of writing in the English language which excluded, and still often does
exclude, many women from participating.