ENG 497 Seminar in English Literature: Narrative Theory and Contemporary Memoir
Once upon a time, according to the historians of life-writing, only the
Great wrote autobiographies and memoirs: great kings and leaders, great
artists, great geniuses. But toward the end of the twentieth century, the
Freudian/Modernist inquiry into subjectivity, the Marxist valorization of
the common person's role in history, and poststructuralism's interest in
social location as a (or the) determinant of identity all conspired to lay
the groundwork for a burgeoning of the genre. At the turn of the
millennium, the field includes dozens of permutations, but, in this
seminar, we will concentrate on coming-of-age memoirs, using the insights
of narrative theory to explore the choices writers have made (of incident,
of persona, of chronological revelation, of tone). To understand first
hand the demands of such choices, students will compose and workshop a
ten-page work of life-writing in addition to completing a linked series of
short scholarly essays that will prepare them to write their final seminar
paper. Our texts may be drawn from among the following: Tobias Wolff's
This Boy's Life, Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face, Mary
Karr's The Liar's Club, Li Young Lee's The Winged Seed, Kim
Barnes's In the Wilderness, Peter Balakian's Black Dog of Fate
, Kathryn Harrison's The Kiss, Mark Doty's Firebird, Greg
Bottom's Angelhead, Antwone Fisher's Finding Fish, Marie
Arana's American Chica, Jimmy Santiago Baca's A Place to Stand
, Dave Eggers's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Linda
Hogan's The Woman Who Watches Over the World, and Nasdijj's The
Blood Runs Like A River Through My Dreams. This course is offered in
the fall semester. Not offered 2005-2006.
Credits: 1
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