Writing the Self: Autobiographical Narratives in the 20th and 21st Centuries (Level 6)

• Credit value: 15 credits at Level 6
• Convenor and tutor: Professor Akane Kawakami
• Prerequisite: French 3
• Assessment: a 3500-word essay (100%)

‘Life-writing’ has recently attempted to replace ‘autobiographical writing’ as the label of a genre which has fascinated and infuriated many, owing to its ambivalent relationship with the real, the philosophical issues it raises with regard to selfhood and identity, and the problematisation of such issues by being put into the context of self-reflexive writing.

In this module we attempt to explore these issues through examining a number of key autobiographical texts by writers spanning the second half of the twentieth and first decade of the twenty-first century, in chronological order.

Indicative syllabus

• Introduction
• Jean-Paul Sartre: Les Mots (translated as: The Words)
• Nathalie Sarraute: Enfance (translated as: Childhood)
• Georges Perec: W, ou le souvenir d'enfance (translated as: W, or the Memory of Childhood)
• Patrick Modiano: Un pedigree (translated as: Pedigree)

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• demonstrate a detailed knowledge of the French autobiographical texts under discussion
• demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the historical and generic context of the prescribed texts
• evaluate the prescribed texts at a thematic as well as linguistic and stylistic level
• demonstrate a command of a range of skills acquired during the module to theorise the texts and mobilise related arguments to analyse them.