ENG 530 Autobiography: Reading & Writing Seminar
The course begins by defining "self" as portrayed in autobiographic writing, then transitions into writing personal narratives by understanding self within the context of family, community, and history. The course focuses on reading autobiography (memoir, personal essays, and epistolary texts) and requires writing, such as short essays and other prose assignments that focus on individual experiences. Written assignments focus on the nonfiction genre but may progress into other genres (fiction, poetry) or subgenres inspired by autobiography. Students read the autobiographies of writers such as Rousseau, Woolf, Baldwin, Malcolm X, Angelou, and Kincaid.