Overview
Description
Reading life stories with attention to gender, race, and class. History, characteristics, and problems of the genre.
Units
Lecture3
Catalog Details
Offering
Offered: Every Spring
Terms
spring
Attributes
Standard
Learning Outcomes
- list and discuss the key issues that arise in autobiographical writing and apply them to specific written works.
- develop and articulate (orally and in writing) strategies for reading, interpreting, and critiquing memoirists’ choices of materials and literary techniques.
- place American autobiographical writing in historical context, tracing trends in the representation of gender, race and class in in life writing. (CO 10)
- describe the perceptions, viewpoints, and life experiences of marginalized groups within the United States, as articulated in the life writing of individuals in those groups.
- identify and discuss ethical questions relevant to the genre of life writing and to memoirists’ choices, including the ethics of truth-telling, collaboration and representation.
- write a successful autobiographical essay, collaborative memoir, and critical interpretation, as measured by a course rubric.
- demonstrate, through an annotated bibliography and class presentation, awareness of theories and research relevant to the study of autobiographical genres, and particularly to recurring questions about truth, memory, identity, and representation.