Writing Lives: Autobiography, Biography,

Elegy and Epitaph

How do we organize our life stories and the life stories of others? What shapes do we give to people's lives when we depict them? Where should the story begin? Where should end? What is the purpose of narrating a life? What kinds of events do we identify as significant in a life story, and why? Do we experience our own lives through literary models? In this first-year colloquium, we will read several different genres of life writing, written over several centuries, in order to consider potential answers to these sorts of questions. The primary purpose of this course is to offer students an opportunity to exercise and improve their skills in discussion, literary interpretation, critical analysis, and written argumentation. The course will not ask you to absorb vast quantities of information. It will require you to engage occasionally with strange and sometimes difficult readings, and it will ask you to think about already familiar things in new ways.

This course will be discussion-centered. Students should come to class each day prepared to discuss the assigned readings with one another. Class participation will count toward the final grade. First-year colloquia are writing intensive courses. Students will write a 3 - 4 pp. paper and two 5 pp. papers. The first two of these essays will be group workshopped in draft form before their final revision and submission. Due dates for the drafts and papers are indicated on the syllabus. Students will also write four brief response papers (1 - 2 pp.). These response papers, meant to spark discussion, must be submitted in class on the day on which they are due; there are a total of six assigned, so students may skip two of them. I will not accept late response papers, nor will I accept early response papers from students who then do not show up to class.

Required Texts (available at the College bookstore in South Hall or via internet at Bigwords.com, under B-code B-2BH6WL):

Bunyan, John. Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners.

Carter, Forrest. The Education of Little Tree.

Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

Kikumura, Akemi. Through Harsh Winters.

Kincaid, Jamaica. My Brother.

Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior.

Nicolson, Nigel, and Vita Sackville-West. Portrait of a Marriage.

photocopied packet available at Rice 130

Schedule of Readings:

Feb. 7 (M):	introductions
Feb. 9 (W):	Franklin, Autobiography, Pt. I 1. DUE: 1-2 pp. response paper
Feb. 11 (F):	Autobiography, Pt. II
Feb. 14 (M):	Autobiography, Pt. III
Feb. 16 (W):	selected lives from The Golden Legend (CP) "S. Dorothy" "S. Ives" 2. DUE: 1-2 pp. response paper
Feb. 18 (F):	Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, pp. 7-44 (through end of sec. 173) 3. DUE: 1-2 pp. response paper
Feb. 21 (M):	Grace Abounding, pp. 44 (from sec. 174) - 77 (through end of sec. 317)
Feb. 23 (W):	Grace Abounding, pp. 77 (from sec. 318) - 87
Feb. 25 (F):	Kingston, The Woman Warrior, "No Name Woman" and "White Tigers"
Feb. 28 (M):	The Woman Warrior, "Shaman" DUE -- draft of Paper I (3-4 pp.) Bring _____ extra copies.
Mar. 1 (W):	small-group workshops of draft essays
Mar. 3 (F):	The Woman Warrior, "At the Western Palace"
Mar. 6 (M):	The Woman Warrior, "Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe"
Mar. 8 (W):	Kikumura, Through Harsh Winters, pp. 1-82
Mar. 10 (F):	Through Harsh Winters, pp. 85-108 DUE -- Paper I (3-4 pp.)
Mar.13 (M):	Through Harsh Winters, pp. 119&emdash;49
Mar. 15 (W):	Carter, The Education of Little Tree, "Sharing Little Tree" and pp. 1-113 4. DUE: 1-2 pp. response paper
Mar. 17 (F):	Carter, Dan T. "Southern History, American Fiction: The Secret Life of Southwestern Novelist Forrest Carter." (CP)
Mar. 20 (M):	The Education of Little Tree, pp. 114-216
Mar. 22 (W):	Milton, "Lycidas" (CP)
Mar. 24 (F):	continue "Lycidas" Johnson, Rambler no. 60 (CP)

Apr. 3 (M):	Gray, "Elegy in a Country Churchyard" (CP)
Apr. 5 (W):	Johnson, "Pope's epitaphs" (CP) Wordsworth, "Essay Upon Epitaphs I" 5. DUE: 1-2 pp. response paper
Apr. 7 (F):	walk
Apr. 10 (M):	continue discussion of epitaphs selections from Sudden and Awful DUE -- draft of Paper II (5 pp.) Bring _____extra copies.
Apr. 12 (W):	small group workshops
Apr. 14 (F):	TBA
Apr. 17 (M):	Freud, "Notes Upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis," pp. 153-220 (CP) 6. DUE: 1-2 pp. response paper
Apr. 19 (W):	"Notes Upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis," pp. 221-49
Apr. 21 (F):	Nicolson, Portrait of a Marriage, Pt. I DUE -- Paper II (5 pp.)
Apr. 24 (M):	Portrait of a Marriage, Pt. II
Apr. 26 (W):	Portrait of a Marriage, Pt. III
Apr. 28 (F):	Portrait of a Marriage, Pt. IV
May 1 (M):	Portrait of a Marriage, Pt. V
May 3 (W):	Kincaid, My Brother, pp. 3-50
May 5 (F):	My Brother, pp. 50-83
May 8 (M):	My Brother, pp. 87-137
May 10 (W):	My Brother, pp. 137-98
May 12 (F):	concluding remarks

Final Papers due May 15th, by 5 pm, at my office (Rice 111) or in my mailbox (Rice 130).

For course pack

Carter, Dan T. "Southern History, American Fiction: The Secret Life of Southwestern Novelist Forrest Carter." Rewriting the South: History and Fiction. Ed. Lothar Honnighausen and Valeria Gennaro Lerda in collaboration with Christop Irmscher and Simon Ward. Tubingen: Francke, 1993. 286&emdash;304.

Freud, Sigmund. "Notes Upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis."

Wordsworth, William. "Essay Upon Epitaphs I"

Johnson, Rambler no. 60

Johnson, "Pope's epitaphs"?????.

Gray, "Elegy in a Country Churchyard"

Milton, "Lycidas"

selections from Sudden and Awful