Narrating the Self

Catalog description

In this course we will explore examples of fully-fledged autobiographies, as well as other versions of autobiographical writing or films. Students will be invited to consider how autobiographical elements are conveyed in each work and, more importantly, how they differ from the model exemplified by Rousseau’s Confessions . These differences will then be analyzed in their relation with pertinent social, cultural, and political circumstances of the period, as well as with questions of identity as they become important, particularly otherness in the colonial context, gender, and sexuality. Students will be continuously asked to reflect not simply on what is being said, but also how and why it is being said in that way. Although material will mostly be presented chronologically so that we may trace the development of autobiography and its offshoots, students will also be expected to make connections across time and space in ways that relate seemingly disparate figures, periods, works, and circumstances. Satisfies requirement in Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric. Prerequisites & Notes French 201 or above.