FREN 242 - Studies in Genre I

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

Topic for 2017/18a: Memory, Invention, and Desire. The course examines modern writing about the self through the practice of autofiction. One of the leading categories of storytelling in French and Francophone societies in the twenty-first century, writing about the self allows modern writers to explore facets of their own existence by reimagining their connection to the world around them. The desire for freedom to reinvent the self is set against the often overpowering forces of history, memory and place, against the traumatic experience of conflict and colonial rule, and the geographies of exclusion that remain their legacy. In our study of several characteristic autofictions, we explore the emergence of new fictional strategies and fresh testimonial approaches recruited to uncover and recover private lives trapped in the past. Authors may include: Azouz Begag, Maryse Condé, Marie Darrieussecq, Assia Djebar, Patrick Modiano, Amélie Nothomb, Gisèle Pineau. Mark Andrews.

Prerequisite(s): FREN 212  or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Two 75-minute periods.