Readings in World Literature II
Course Code
HUMA 11100 97
Course Description
The theme for the Winter Quarter of Readings in World Literature is "Autobiography/ Writing the Self." This course examines the nature of autobiographical writing from a wide range of cultural and historical contexts, including texts such as Augustine's Confessions, Sei Shonagon's The Pillow Book, Vladimir Nabokov's Speak Memory, Wole Soyinka's Aké and Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir Fun Home.
While last quarter focused on the genre of the epic-texts that imagine and even create a people's sense of a shared past and a shared culture-this quarter will focus on how individuals imagine their own, particular lives.
We will explore, among other issues, how the self is constructed through reading and writing, the relationship between memory and identity, the claims of authenticity or truth, the oscillation between interior and exterior life, and the peculiarities of individual voice.
Course Criteria
This course is only open to incoming UChicago transfer students; please see the Summer Session Incoming Transfer Students page to apply.
This course must be taken alongside HUMA 11000, Readings in World Literature I, as well as an afternoon writing course that runs August 4-September 12, 2025 (no class September 1).
Instructor(s)
Maylenne Sternstein
UChicago Registration 1Visiting Application 2