Ways of Reading: Autobiography
ENGL 201P
Spring 2021
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01
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"Ways of Reading" introduces students to the characteristics thought of as literary and the methods for studying them. This is a gateway course into the English major, and only one of the ENGL201 series may be taken for credit.
"Ways of Reading" courses develop strategies for careful and close reading, and techniques for the analysis of literary forms such as poetry, drama, and prose narratives such as novels and short stories. They familiarize students with some of the protocols of the literary-critical essay, examine the idea of literature as a social institution, and explore ways of connecting textual details and the world beyond the text. The ways of reading learned in the course are powerful tools for critically assessing discourses that expand far beyond the realm of literature. So while students will become adept literary critics, they also will learn quickly that to be a literary critic is to read critically and carefully all the time: in poems, novels, and plays; but also in political speech, in popular culture, and in the discourses that shape everyday life.
This "Ways of Reading" course will explore autobiography as an elusive and multifaceted literary form. We will ask: Who or what is the subject of autobiography? Who besides the author is implicated in the acts of writing and reading autobiography? How elastic are the distinctions between fiction and fact, self-reportage and self-fabrication within autobiography? What kinds of narratives and artistic forms count as autobiographical? To pose these questions, we will explore hybrid texts that splice together varying genres and forms under the umbrella of autobiography, including poems, memoirs, graphic memoirs, personal essays, metafictional novels, documentary films, performance pieces, and biomythographies. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Lecture / Discussion | Grading Mode: Student Option |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (ENGL) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Alison Bechdel, ARE YOU MYMOTHER?: A COMIC DRAMA (Mariner, 2012)
Alison Bechdel, FUN HOME: A FAMILY TRAGICOMIC (Mariner, 2006)
Roxane Gay, HUNGER: A MEMOIR OF (MY) BODY (Harper, 2017)
Lisa Kron, 2.5 MINUTE RIDE AND 101 HUMILIATING STORIES (Theatre Communications Group, 2000)
Audre Lorde, ZAMI: A NEW SPELLING OF MY NAME (Crossing Press, 1982)
Jordy Rosenberg, CONFESSIONS OF THE FOX (One World, 2018)
Heidi Schreck, WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME (Theater Communications Group, 2020)
Jia Tolentino, TRICK MIRROR: REFLECTIONS OF SELF-DELUSION (Random House, 2019)
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Examinations and Assignments:
6 short papers ranging from 750 words (2 pages) to 2000 words (8 pages) |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Participation in class discussion |
| Instructor(s): Shetina,Michael Times: ..T.R.. 02:50PM-04:10PM; Location: ONLINE; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 0 | JR major: 0 | | |
| Seats Available: 3 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 0 | JR non-major: 1 | SO: 13 | FR: 1 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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