ENG332 Life Writing

[3–0, 3 cr.]

In this course, students will read a range of literature in the genre of life-writing, which will include biography, autobiography, letters, and podcasts. Set texts will include not only those conventionally understood as autobiography, but also those, such as works by Truman Capote (U.S.) and Doris Lessing (U.K.), which creatively blur the line between biography and autobiography. The course will allow students to develop their life writing narratives by producing portfolios of both biographical and memoiristic stories. Intersections and distinctions between (auto) biographical writing modes will be explored through in-class exercises to curate voice, and to develop skills of style, point of view, and narrative structure.

Prerequisite: ENG 102