American Identities: Memoir and Autobiography in the Twentieth Century

How do we think about our own place in history? This writing-intensive seminar examines how individual Americans have explored the relationship between their identity and historical events, and introduces the legitimacy of using individual experiences to understand history. Themes include the gendering of domestic and public space, the formation of identity within families, class alignments, societal expectations of gender/sexuality, how American exceptionalism manifests itself at the individual level, and narrative (un)reliability. Our discussions center on autobiographies, memoirs, and films from authors such as Audre Lorde, Harry Crews, Malcolm X, Alison Bechdel, and Tobias Wolff.