11:15A-12:05P   MWF   BH 214

This course will be a process of inquiry - through reading, writing, and
discussion - into the proliferation of identities in society. As we study
how a dozen or so authors have written and rewritten their lives, we will
be asking about the relationship between what is universally "true" and
what is "true" to individual experience, how writers move from particular
experiences (details) to generalizations about experience (meaning), and
how the past exists as text, image and code shaped not only by our beliefs
and desires, but by those who came before us. We will question the notion
of an autonomous self, explore how authors manage to achieve individual
voices while speaking within the contexts that shape them, and examine
ways in which not only artistic and public figures, but all of us are both
"authors of ourselves and "authored" by our culture.

Texts: Writing Analytically, Rosenwasser & Stephen
Annie John, Jamaica Kincaid
Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez
The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
Waterland, Graham Swift
The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields
Course Packet of readings: available at Collegiate
Films: Europa, Europa, The Wedding Banquet, Six Degrees of
Separation, Waterland

Writing Assignments: Written assignments will be of three types. You will
write ten short Response Paper (250 words) addressing one discussion
question from a weekly list of questions I will give you. These papers
will serve as the basis of our class discussion of the readings. In light
of class discussion and my comments, you will further develop these into
four Position Papers. You will also write two longer Major Papers - one a
literary analysis and one a analytical narrative making connections among
the ideas in the readings on your own experience.
Evaluation: Your final grade will be based on the following:
Responses 		  (8 at 15 points each)   =120 points
Position Papers 	  (4 at 50 points each)   =200 points
Major Papers 		  (2 at 200 points each)  =400 points
Mid-term exam                                     =150 points
Leading Discussion 	(2 at 15 points each)     = 30 points
Participation  (attendance, effort, conferences,  =100 points
work in on time)                        total of  1000 points