123425 SE Literary & Cultural Studies Seminar / BA Paper / MA American/North American Lit./Studies (2016S)

In this class, we will be looking at ways in which people write about their own lives - and thus become both the observing subject and the object of investigation or contemplation. In loosely chronological structure and focusing on North American texts we will be investigating life writing from the early colonial period, late 18th century, Transcendentalism, but also autobiographical forms informed by post-structuralism. An interest in critical approaches to the large genre of life narrative is essential for participation.