All readers fall prey to it: the autobiographical fallacy-the conflation of author and narrator. Writers know readers are susceptible to it. A tutorial designed to explore the uses and abuses of the autobiographical fallacy by contemporary American authors. How do writers of autobiographical fiction take advantage of this tendency? What role does the autobiographical fallacy play in a writer's authority? What's the relationship between reader and writer in autobiographical fiction? What do writers of such fiction want from a reader, and how does encouraging the autobiographical fallacy get them what they want? Reading list may include work by Tim O'Brien, Lorrie Moore, Junot Diaz, Dorothy Allison, Amy Hempel, Jhumpa Lahiri, Mary Yukari Waters, and Edwidge Danticat, among others. Format: tutorial. Requirements: In keeping with tutorial format, students will meet in pairs with the instructor once a week; during these meetings, one student will present a short analytical paper on the texts being covered that week. The other student will join the instructor in responding to that paper. Prerequisites: a 100-level course, except 150. Enrollment limit: 10 (expected: 10). (Post-1900)