FREN 358 - Writing the Self in French Autobiography

Prerequisite, FREN 201 or Instructor’s approval. In this course students will examine how writers construct the self through representation. They will study various forms and themes in modern French autobiography and address issues such as authenticity, memory, identity, and self-knowledge. Works to be studied will include texts by Rousseau, Sarraute, and Perec, as well as Satrapi’s autobiographical bande dessinée, and an autobiographical film by Agnès Varda. Supplementary theoretical readings by Lejeune, Gusdorf, and others will provide context for the readings. This course will also include a creative component through which students will consider the issues surrounding autobiography by their own attempts to “write the self.” Letter grade. (Offered as needed.) 3 credits