"To write autobiography is to engage in a self-conscious and deliberate process that draws not only on vast amounts of personal memory but research into one’s life, mastery of narrative skills, and an eagerness to communicate a carefully crafted version of oneself to strangers." Susan Engel, Context is Everything: The Nature of Memory

A course in 20th and 21st Century autobiography, focusing on memoir in the form of book-length narratives, personal essays, and graphic art. We will endeavor to think critically about, and attempt to answer, questions including:

What are the implications in exploring the self as primary subject?

How is a persona created and presented?

What emerges in the conflict between calendar and narrative truths?

How has the form and theory of autobiography/memoir been defined,

challenged, subverted and re-defined over the 20th and into the 21st

Centuries?

papers, a presentation, and a final exam or final essay. There will also be weekly reading responses. This course will require a great deal of reading and reflecting, and consistent and thoughtful discussion. Attendance and participation are mandatory.