Prospectus

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Literature: Shaping the Truth: Memoirs, memories, and (auto)biographical "life-writing" or "life narratives" from Rousseau to Obama

Course
2009-2010

Description

To examine the role of memory in reconstructing an (auto)biographical narrative of oneself or another; to consider the extent to which such narratives (which may be fictional in nature (can be said to be “truthful” to objectively-discernible fact (whatever that may be)); to trace the process of self-construction in such narratives; to examine the phenomena of self-aggrandizement and/or self-deprecation; and related issues as they emerge from such considerations.

Teaching method

Two-hour seminar per week.

Course objectives

Each week one or more participants will hold a short (10-15 minute) presentation leading to anything between two and five question emerging from the text chosen, in such a way as to allow us to structure the ensuing discussion. Participants will have further developed their academic writing and interpretative skills.

Required reading

  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions (1782; English version in Penguin Classics, 2005).

  • Edmund Gosse, Father and Son (2004: Oxford Worlds Classics, ed. Newton).

  • Jan Morris, Conundrum (1974; pbk rpt 2002).

  • A.S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance (1990; Vintage pbk rpts).

  • Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace (1996; Virago pbk rpts).

  • Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire (1962; Vintage pbk rpts).

  • Frank Kermode, Not Entitled (1996).

  • Anthony Burgess, Little Wilson and Big God (1986) and You’ve Had Your Time (1990).

  • Alan Bennett, Writing Home (2004).

  • Simon Gray, The Smoking Diaries (Granta 2004; this is a quartet; the first three are published by Granta. All four parts are recommended, but the (eponymously-titled) first and the fourth part, Coda (Faber & Faber 2008) are essential).

  • Barak Obama, Dreams from my Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance (1995; Canongate, 2008).

Test method

A research paper, 4.000 – 5.000 words (including bibliography) in length.

Time table

Click here for the timetable

Information

English Department, P.N. van Eyckhof 4, room 102c. Phone: 071 527 2144, or by mail: english@hum.leidenuniv.nl.

Registration

Students can register through U-twist before 15 July, After 15 July students can only register through the Departmental Office.

Blackboard

A Blackboard site will be made available.