Writing the Self: Autobiographical Narratives in the 20th and 21st Centuries (Level 6)
Overview
- Credit value: 15 credits at Level 6
- Convenor: Akane Kawakami
- Lecturer: Akane Kawakami
- Prerequisite: French 3
- Assessment: a 3500-word essay
Module description
‘Life-writing’ has recently attempted to replace ‘autobiographical writing’ as the label of a genre which has fascinated and infuriated many, owing to its ambivalent relationship with the real, the philosophical issues it raises with regard to selfhood and identity, and the problematisation of such issues by being put into the context of self-reflexive writing.
This module will attempt to explore these issues through examining a number of key autobiographical texts by writers spanning the second half of the twentieth and first decade of the twenty-first century, in chronological order: Leiris, Sarraute, Perec and Modiano.
Indicative module content
- Introduction
- L'Age d'homme
- Enfance
- Reading Week
- W ou le souvenir d'enfance
- Un pedigree
- Revision
Recommended reading
- Michel Leiris, L’âge d’homme.
- Patrick Modiano, Un Pedigree.
- Georges Perec, W ou le souvenir d’enfance.
- Nathalie Sarraute, Enfance.