Readings in World Literature II
Course Code
HUMA 11100 97
Course Description
The theme for this course in the Readings in World Literature sequence 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 the previous course in the sequence 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 course 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. For more info, please visit the Summer Session Incoming Transfer Students page.
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