Life Writing

Course Objective

At the end of the course students will understand and be able to write
on key themes and theories that underpin the genre of literature we call
Life Writing. They will have learned new vocabulary and methodologies
found in Life Writing studies and be able to critically discuss the
relationship between culture and power that is expressed in many life
narratives. Students will be able to use the course tools to reflect on
selected texts.

Course Content

On this course we shall look at ways in which Life Writing is related to
recent shifts in the ways in which we read Literature and how we
approach Literary Studies. In this introductory course we aim to re-
examine what we mean when we discuss the ‘literary text’ and make new
connections with more encompassing notions of ‘narrative and story
telling’ that are not only the basis of all traditional literary text,
but also inform, shape and underpin the production of life writing,
autobiography, biography and other forms of personal narrative that are
to be found in poetry, prose and graphic novels. By broadening the scope
of literary material to include these personal forms of ‘narrative and
storytelling’ we will begin to examine how this writing ‘from life’ can
reveal many new perspectives on historical knowledge of events, cultural
identity and retrieve and recover perspectives and voices that would
otherwise be lost. Linking these life stories to the question of
personal and cultural memory, we will examine fundamental questions
about culture such as ‘what do we know about identity formations’ and
examine the political, interpersonal, social and cultural shifts that
determine what, how and why people and societies ‘remember’ as we seek
to uncover how and to what extent these life narratives and stories
shape a culture.
The course aims to look at the ways in which Life Writing is
interdisciplinary, covering a broad spectrum of writing categories
(auto/ biography, memoir, diary, travel writing, graphic novels, poetry
and prose) but will, in addition, examine the privileged place of the
’scribal’ by introducing analysis of the overlooked contribution of oral
culture (storytelling, performance poetry and lyric) and the visual
(cartoon, fine art and graphic texts) as ways of expressing life
experience (Assman, et al.).

Teaching Methods

Students must attend 1 lecture and 2 seminars each week.

Method of Assessment

Course Attendance 20%
In-Class Participation 20%
Essay 60%

All components have to be graded 5.5 or higher.

Entry Requirements

Students must have participated in Literary Theory (L_ELBALES101).

Literature

To be announced

Target Audience

First-year students of Literature and Society: English.

Custom Course Registration

There is a slightly different enrollment procedure for this module. The standard procedure of the Faculty of Humanities has students sign up for (i) the module, (ii) the form of tuition (lecture and/or preferred seminar group), and (iii) the exam. However, for this module the instructor will assign the students to the seminar groups. Therefore, students should sign up for (i) the module, (ii) the lectures and (iii) the exam, but not for the seminar group.