EN 654.01 Junior Honors Seminar:History, Memory, Culture (Spring 2012-2013: 3)
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
and theorists have used to narrate the past: for example, Willa Cather's
My Antonia (a novel made to look like a memoir) and/or Ernest Hemingway's
war fiction; Fae Mae Ng's bone (a book narrated in reverse time); war memoirs
by Stephen Crane and Dexter Filkins; Walter Benjamin'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. Permission of the instructor required. Students
wishing to enroll should contact him at christopher.wilson@bc.edu.
Christopher Wilson
Last Updated: 30-JAN-13