Schedule

READING KEY: CW = Course Website (pass code for readings = ENGL360); RA = Reading Autobiography;
NC = The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca; BF = The Autobiography of Ben Franklin; FH = Fun Home;
CSN = The Classic Slave Narratives; AL = Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric

NOTE: All Blog posts are due Tuesdays at midnight.  Blog prompts will be provided at the bottom of weekly ClassWrap entries that I will post on Saturday by midnight.  You need to author 10 posts total–5 before spring break and 5 after.  No make-up posts will be allowed.

WEEK 1–Reading & Writing the Self Part I:
History and Theory of Autobiography

MONDAY, 1/10	WEDNESDAY, 1/12	FRIDAY, 1/14
Course Introduction Lecture: Self as Story in Words, Pictures and Hypertext 20 % Project: Becoming Intellectual Entrepreneurs	Readings: Blogging Instructions (CW); “Life Narrative: Definitions and Distinctions” (RA: 1-19); and “Life Narrative in Historical Perspective” (RA 103-125)	Readings: “Autobiographical Subjects” (RA: 21-61)

WEEK 2–Reading & Writing the Self Part II:
Our Character, Our Story

MONDAY, 1/17	WEDNESDAY, 1/19	FRIDAY, 1/21
MLK Day – No Class	Readings: “Autobiographical Acts” (RA: 63-102); and peruse–i.e. skim and focus more intently on genres that might interest you–“Appendix A: 60 Genres of Life Narrative (RA: 253-286). Be prepared to discuss a genre you found of particular interest.	Readings: Phillip Lopate, “Writing Personal Essays: On the Necessity of Turning Oneself into a Character” (CW); Sherman Alexie: “The Unauthorized Autobiography of Me” (CW); “A Tool Kit: Twenty-four Strategies for Reading Life Narratives” (RA: 235-251).

WEEK 3–Native American Autobiography

MONDAY, 1/24	WEDNESDAY, 1/26	FRIDAY, 1/28
Lecture: Before the Self: Native American Autobiography Readings: Hertha Dawn Wong, “Pre-Contact Oral and Pictographic Autobiographical Narratives: Coup Tales, Vision Stories, and Naming Practices” (CW); Pima Stories of the Beginning of the World (CW)	Readings: “Two Leggings: The Making of a Crow Warrior” (CW). Contemporary Connections: Warrior tales of today: Read H. David Brumble, “The Gangbanger Autobiography of Monster Kody (aka Sanyika Shakur) and Warrior Literature (CW, ~20 pages)	20 % Project Day 1 Activities: Brainstorm Projects, be prepared to discuss a tool you found potentially useful onDiRT (Digital Research Tools). Bring RA to class.

WEEK 4–Narratives of Discovery:
The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca

MONDAY, 1/31	WEDNESDAY, 2/2	FRIDAY, 2/4
Lecture: Discovery Narratives and the Autobiography of Encounter Readings: From “Introduction” (NC: 1-5 and 17); the prefatory letter; and  Chapters 1 (“In wich is told when the expedition departed”) through Chapter 10, (“Of the skirmish we had with the Indians”) (NC: 44-83)	Readings: Chapter 11, “Of what happened to Lope de Oviedo with some Indians,” through Chapter 23, “How we departed after having eaten the dogs” (NC 83-125).	Readings: Chapter 24, “Of the customs of the Indians of that land” through Chapter 38: Of what happened to the rest of those who had come to the Indies” (NC 125-176).

WEEK 5–Spiritual Autobiography and Reflection in Early America

MONDAY, 2/7	WEDNESDAY, 2/9	FRIDAY, 2/11
Lecture: The Puritan Self, the Puritan Mind Reading: Thomas Shephard, “Autobiography,” from God’s Plot (CW).	Reading: Michael Wigglesworth, excerpts from his diary (CW); and Jonathan Edwards, “Personal Narrative” (CW); Edward Taylor, “Prologue,” “Meditation 8,” and “Meditation 16” (CW); and “The Last Words and Dying Speech of Levi Ames” (CW)	20% Project Day 2 Activities: 5-minute Presentations on DiRT (and other digital humanities research tools) and rough ideas for projects. Gather into groups or begin charting out a solo course.

WEEK 6–Trials, Captivity, Confession, Poetry:
Forms of Early Women’s Autobiography

MONDAY, 2/14	WEDNESDAY, 2/16	FRIDAY, 2/18
Lecture: Genres of Autobiography: Early Women’s Writing Readings: Selected Confessions from Thomas Shepard’s congregation (CW); Ann Hutchinson, from The Examination of Mrs. Ann Hutchinson at the court at Newton, regarding the Antinomian Controversy (CW); Anne Bradstreet “Letter to my Children” and “Meditations Divine and Moral” (CW)	Readings: Mary Rowlandson, “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” + “Preface to the Reader” by Increase Mather.	Readings: Esther Rodgers, “The Declaration and Confession of Esther Rodgers” (CW); Phillis Wheately, “On Imagination,” and “On Reconciliation” (CW); Anne Bradstreet, “Letter to My Children,” “Prologue,” and “The Author to her Book.” Contemporary Connections: Read Melani McAlister, “Saving Private Lynch“ Your Own Connections: Can you come up with a few “contemporary connections” of your own? Please consider and be able to talk about one in class.

WEEK 7–The Canonical Self:
Benjamin Franklin

[friday unit on portraiture]

MONDAY, 2/21	WEDNESDAY, 2/23	FRIDAY, 2/25
Readings: Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography (BF 1-72)	Readings: Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography (BF 72-95)	Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography (BF 95-176)

WEEK 8–Review, Exam, Discuss

MONDAY, 2/28	WEDNESDAY, 3/2	FRIDAY, 3/4
Exam Review	In-Class Midterm Exam	20% Project Day 3 Activities: Return & Discuss Exams, Due: Submit Rough Timeline and Proposal for your 20% Project

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WEEK 9

Spring Break: No class on 3/7 – 3/11

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WEEK 10: The Self in Chains:
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

 

MONDAY, 3/14	WEDNESDAY, 3/16	FRIDAY, 3/18
Slave Narratives 325-383 (prefatory matter through Chapter IX)	Slave Narratives 383-436 (Chapter X through the end). “Recollections of Slavery by a Runaway Slave” (1938) CW.  From I Belong to South Carolina: South Caroline Slave Narratives (2010)	20% Day Document your work Tag your 20% project page and provide updates

WEEK 11–Modern Selves: Established, Emerging and Transcendent: Brief selections from Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Lucy Larcom, W.E.B. Du Bois, Mary Antin, Alexander Berkman and Henry Adams 

 

 

MONDAY, 3/21	WEDNESDAY, 3/23	FRIDAY, 3/25
Walt Whitman, selections from “Song of Myself” and Specimen Days. (CW) Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Experience.” (CW) Henry David Thoreau, selections from Walden and his Journals. (CW) Lucy Larcom (1824-1893), excerpts from A New England Girlhood (CW)	W.E.B. DuBois, excerpts from The Souls of Black Folk (1903). (CW) Henry Adams, excerpt from The Education of Henry Adams (1918) (CW) Mary Antin, excerpt from The Promised Land (1912) (CW). Alexander Berkman, exerpts from Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1912)	20% Day Discuss readings + importance of visual representations of the self from portraiture to the digital image

WEEK 12–Identity, Experiment, and Tradition:
James Baldwin, Gloria Anzaldua, Maxine Hong Kinston, David Shields, Kathleen Norris

MONDAY, 3/28	WEDNESDAY, 3/30	FRIDAY, 4/1
James Baldwin, “Autobiographical Note” and “Notes of a Native Son” (1955)  (CW) Gloria Anzaldua, excerpts from Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987) (CW)	Maxine Hong Kingson, “White Tigers,” from Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts (1975) (CW) David Shields, excerpts from Reality Hunger: A Manfesto (2010) (CW)	20% Project Day / Individual Conferences

Week 13–The Graphic Memoir:
Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home

MONDAY, 4/4	WEDNESDAY, 4/6	FRIDAY, 4/8
Alison Bechdel, Fun Home (1-120) (FH)	Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home (121-232) (FH)	20% Project Day; Individual Conferences

WEEK 14–Post-9/11 Selves:
Claudia Rankine’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric

MONDAY, 4/11	WEDNESDAY, 4/13	FRIDAY, 4/15
Claudia Rankine, Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric (1-73) (AL). Pay attention to “notes” in the back of the book	Claudia Rankine, Don’t Let Me Be Lonely (73-end) (AL)	20% Project Day; Individual Conferences

WEEK 15–Online Selves:
Blogging, Facebook, Twitter

MONDAY, 4/18	WEDNESDAY, 4/20	FRIDAY, 4/22
Presentations	Presentations	Presentations

WEEK 16

Monday: Wrap up Presentations, Final Blog Revisions Due, Fill Out Course Evaluations

[Final Exam: Wednesday, April 27, 12:00-3:00, Maybank 220]