Combining an original account of the development of autobiography with analysis of the texts, Seelig explores the relation between the writers' choices of genre and form and the stories they chose to tell.

The poetry of Herbert, Vaughan, and Traherne represents ""an attempt to shape their lives and verse around the fact of divine presence and influence, "" writes Sharon Seelig.

In Generating Texts, Sharon Cadman Seelig tests traditional notions of genre by analyzing parallels between works that confound existing categories.