230098 Life Writing in the Americas- An Inter-American Approach to Selves in Literature from 1980-Today (S) (SoSe 2014)

The second half of the twentieth century showed several new developments in the study of autobiography and biography and began to recognize these fields in academic research. Especially James Olney’s publication Autobiography: Essays Theoretical and Critical in 1980 expanded the canon to include and investigate other or new forms of life writing and since then the interdisciplinary study of life writing has experienced a boom, increasingly turning to expressions of selves by women, as well as postcolonial migrants and ethnic minorities. These and other developments have led and are continuously leading the field to be transformed in regard to definition, methodology and nature.

In this seminar we will discuss some of the recent developments in the field of life writing, whereas a special focus will be put on the close reading and discussion of a selection of life-writing texts in the Americas in regard to aspects of migration, mobility, and identity. In order to obtain a Studienleistung or a grade, students will need to do an oral presentation and several writing assignments.