The Self as Story

Our Course

HONS 255.02 | Spring 2025 | MYBK 320 | T/TH 1:40 – 2:55

Photo Credit: Larissa Honsek

What is the self, and how has it been defined historically? How do we conceive of the self today, and as we look to the digital future? How is the self written, pictured, mythologized, transformed, and virtualized? This course will address these enduring questions, using the practice of contemporary autobiography as our focus.

We will begin with a section on “investigations and methods” where we will examine ideas of selfhood across time and from different disciplinary perspectives and explore methodologies unique to the interdisciplinary field of autobiography and life-writing studies. The course will then proceed to a section on “models” where we read, discuss, and write about a set of autobiographies with these investigations and methods in mind. The course will conclude with a final section focusing on “making” in which students will engage in a major research project in relation to autobiography.

Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)

General Education SLOs for Humanities:

In this course, we will provide evidence for assessment of Global and/or Cultural Perspective.

Students analyze or interpret how ideas are represented or valued in various perspectives or expressions of human culture. More specifically, students will be able to:

Identify or frame a perspective or expression of human culture.
Analyze how the perspective or expression is represented, interpreted, or valued
Describe the significance of the analysis.

These learning outcomes will be evaluated using the take-home mid-term exam.

Honors SLOs for Colloquia Exploring Complexity and Diversity require that students:

Demonstrate the ability to create and communicate analytic arguments supported by evidence
Evaluate complex issues using an interdisciplinary perspective
Analyze and synthesize information within and/or across disciplines

Course-specific SLOs:

Students demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the historical and theoretical context for autobiography
Students apply key concepts related to autobiography to analyze contemporary autobiographical texts
Students synthesize knowledge from interdisciplinary research in support of creative and/or critical autobiography-focused projects

Prerequisites

Honors College Student, HONS 100, HONS 110, and one additional HONS course of at least 3 credits (excluding HONS 115, HONS 214, HONS 216, and HONS 217).