9:30a-10:45a TR (30) 3 cr.
TOPIC: SPIRITUAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY
This course focuses on modern spiritual autobiography, a selection of
twentieth-century
works that in one way or another involve writer and reader in a quest
for the meaning of a
life. Our authors are women and men, both religious and
non-religious. The inspirations
for their writing vary in seriousness from a subtly increasing sense
of dissatisfaction
through illness and soul-threatening environment to mortal threat, but
all seek a new and
more meaningful definition of themselves in relation to their world.
In our discussions we
will approach the readings as life stories--in other words, as part of
the larger genre of
autobiography--but we will give particular attention to the nature of
the spiritual quest at
the core of each narrative, and to the author's way of presenting the
journey of
self-discovery or -transformation. We will spend some time early in
the semester studying
personal journals and their relation to autobiography.
There will be two kinds of writing assignments: frequent one-page
responses to questions we
will ask of the readings, and a longer project which may be critical
or autobiographical.
Students will make a group presentation to the class on an author,
theme, or critical
question. The short papers together and the longer project will each
contribute about 40%
to the final grade for the course, and class contribution will make up
the remaining 20%.
The reading list is not yet final, but it will contain most of the
following works and
several others: Lucy Grealy, Autobiography of a Face; Etty
Hillesum, An
Interrupted Life; Eva Hoffman, Lost in Translation; Tobias
Wolff, This Boy's
Life; Richard Wright, Black Boy