Writing The Self

Autobiography (from the Greek, autos self, bios life, graphein to write) has become a popular genre in recent years. Memoirs especially, which are an autobiographical sub-genre that focuses on formative themes and periods of the author's life rather than aiming for the autobiography's comprehensive chronological coverage, have consistently featured on literary bestseller lists and have been adopted as academic texts in literary studies modules in many universities. In the cyber age, when what D.H. Lawrence calls the "old stable ego of the character" has long been discredited, the memoir has posed a serious challenge to the novel, with which it has many affinities, as reflected by its wide readership and the number of major literary writers who have turned to the genre. Writing the Self will examine why the memoir has become such a popular genre and explore aspects of life- or self-writing that make it compelling. It examines selected literary memoirs and autobiographical poems and probes the impulses and motivations behind the autobiographical acts. As memory is the key to any autobiographical undertaking, the course explores the nature of memory and the process of remembering. It examines the fictional elements and narrative strategies that create a compelling story, and pays attention to the dialectic between fact and fiction, truth and invention, and between memory and imagination. It also explores the themes of childhood, the family, mortality and ethics. The course covers the theory and practice of autobiography through a study of techniques of writing the self, and integrates literary analysis and creative writing in an exploration of the role of memory and imagination in reconstructing and shaping the past. It allows students the option of pursuing for their major assignment a critical task related to themes and texts covered in the course or a life-writing project in narrative prose or poetry. This course will explore the processes involved in writing about the self, integrating analysis of the autobiographical techniques of major writers with a practical understanding of the resources of the writer through workshop exercises and assignments. Particular attention will be paid to ? The literary tradition of the autobiographical act ? The creation of self and identity in and through narrative ? The fictions that inform "autobiographical truth" ? The nature and role of memory in the structuring of experience ? The motives for memoir-writing