ENGL 324(F) Autobiography and Novel, 1660-1800
During the eighteenth century, real people and fictional characters were writing and publishing their life stories with increasing frequency. In this course, we will be reading both autobiographies and pseudo-autobiographies (novels that purported to be autobiographies). We will consider the various eighteenth-century modes of autobiographical writing (spiritual, criminal, travel, celebrity, and captivity narratives), and we will discuss how autobiographers depicted particular stages of life: birth, coming of age, even death. Among the authors likely to be read are: John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, Mary Rowlandson, Samuel Richardson, Olaudah Equiano, Laurence Sterne, James Boswell, Fanny Burney, and Henry Fielding. Requirements: two papers, a final exam, and occasional short assignments. Prerequisite: English 101. Enrollment limited to 25. (Pre-1800)