Life Writing: Writing About the Self and From Experience
COL 227
Spring 2015
| Section:
01
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| Certificates: Writing |
This course will examine both the power and the complexities of writing that derives from personal experience. Topics to be addressed, in turn, are Memory (and its reliability); Experience (authoritative/reportial versus interpretative/symbolic); Identity and Voice of the narrator; and Agency (the degree to which the narrator is in control, or not in control, of the narrative). Types of Life Writing that will be explored are coming of age/education narratives, illness and trauma narratives, confessional narratives, spiritual narratives, and end-of-life narratives. We will also examine selected works of fiction inspired by the novelist's life experience. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA COL |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (COL)(ENGL)(ENGL-Creative W)(ENGL-Literature) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Readings will include (either in full or excerpts):
Paul John Eakin, HOW OUR LIVES BECOME STORIES: MAKING SELVES
Henry Adams, THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS
Richard Rodriguez, HUNGER OF MEMORY: THE EDUCATION OF RICHARD RODRIQUEZ
St. Augustine, CONFESSIONS
John Edgar Wideman, BROTHERS AND KEEPERS
Joan Didion, THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING
Esmeralda Santiago, WHEN I WAS PUERTO RICAN
George Plimpton, EDIE
Somerset Maugham, THE SUMMING UP
James Joyce, PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN
and selected fiction and nonfiction by William Styron, Virginia Woolf and Mary Karr.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Students will write three short pieces and one long piece of nonfiction deriving from their personal experience. Student writings will be presented and critiqued in a workshop format. |
| Instructor(s): Barber,Charles Times: .....F. 01:10PM-04:00PM; Location: WYL110; |
Permission of Instructor Required
Enrollment capacity: 12 | Permission of instructor approval will be granted by the instructor during pre-registration through the Electronic Portfolio. Click "Add to My Courses" and "To request a POI electronically, click here" to submit your request. |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 4 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 1 | Unranked: 3 |
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