EN 654.01 Junior Honors Seminar: History, Memory, Culture in American Literature (Spring 2011-2012: 3)
Permission of the instructor required.
This class is one of the "Advanced Topics" seminars offered by the English
department. The difference is that registration priority will be given
to Juniors, particularly those considering either writing an Honors
thesis for the English major and/or going on to graduate school. We will
deal primarily with nineteenth and twentieth century American fiction, memoir,
and even experimental nonfiction, exploring how writers reconstruct both
historical and personal experience, and examining what theorists and critics
have had to say about the psychological and narrative dimensions of memory
in American literature. We will examine the variety of literary forms writers
have used to narrate the past: for example, Willa Cather's My Antonia
(a novel made to look like a memoir); Fae Mae Ng's bone (a book narrated
in reverse time); war memoirs by Stephen Crane and Dexter Filkins; Paul
Auster's or Tillie Olsen's or John Edgar Wideman's blending of ethnic autobiography
and experimental fiction. Along with requiring oral presentations and a
long research paper, this seminar will also help students (who so desire
it) to craft their Honors thesis proposal. Students wishing to enroll
should contact him at christopher.wilson@bc.edu.
Christopher Wilson
Last Updated: 19-SEP-11