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AUTO-FICTION, MEMOIR, AND THE PERSONAL ESSAY

Module code: EN376
Credits: 5
Semester: 2
Quota: 16
Department: ENGLISH
International:

	Overview
	In recent years, there has been an explosion of writing that is not so easily placed in one category of writing or another: what we call this new body of work and how it functions is still being negotiated, which means that this is also work that is tremendously exciting to read and experience, since it is not clearly ‘fiction’, ‘memoir’, ‘essay’, or ‘criticism’. This seminar series looks at a range of material that can be classified either as auto-fiction, memoir or personal essay, looking at the ways in which authors push at the boundaries of forms and create new structures of writing. Intimate, intense, and formally interesting, all of the texts give new consideration to how the self is written into literary forms. We will look at work by authors from several different countries, examining themes that emerge and the ways in which writers negotiate the presence of their own lives in their texts.

Overview

In recent years, there has been an explosion of writing that is not so easily placed in one category of writing or another: what we call this new body of work and how it functions is still being negotiated, which means that this is also work that is tremendously exciting to read and experience, since it is not clearly ‘fiction’, ‘memoir’, ‘essay’, or ‘criticism’. This seminar series looks at a range of material that can be classified either as auto-fiction, memoir or personal essay, looking at the ways in which authors push at the boundaries of forms and create new structures of writing. Intimate, intense, and formally interesting, all of the texts give new consideration to how the self is written into literary forms. We will look at work by authors from several different countries, examining themes that emerge and the ways in which writers negotiate the presence of their own lives in their texts.

Teaching & Learning methods

Assessment

	Autumn Supplementals/Resits
	Are supplemental/resit registrations permitted? Yes Is Supplemental Continuous Assessment registration permitted? Yes Is Supplemental Continuous Assessment capped? Yes

	Additional Reading
	Indicative texts: ‘Goodbye to all that’, from Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion (USA, 1967) An Angel at My Table, Janet Frame (New Zealand, 1989) The Dept of Speculation, Jenny Offil (USA, 2014) The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson (USA, 2015) Outline (2014), Transit (2016), Kudos (2018), Rachel Cusk (UK) Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life, Yiyun Li (USA/ China, 2017) Where Reasons End, Yiyun Li (USA/ China, 2019) Break.up, Joanna Walsh (UK, 2018) Can You Tolerate This?, Ashleigh Young (New Zealand, 2018) Blueberries, Ellena Savage (Australia, 2020) Notes From an Apocalypse, Mark O’Connell (Ireland, 2020) A Ghost in the Throat, Doireann Ní Ghríofa (Ireland, 2020) The Disconnect, Roisín Kiberd (Ireland, 2021)

Additional Reading

	Timetable
	This timetable is not currently available, please contact the English Department.