Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Fall 2014 - WL 203 D100

Selected Genres in World Literature (3)

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 2 – Dec 1, 2014: Tue, 12:30–2:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Exam Times + Location:

    Dec 10, 2014
    Wed, 3:30–6:30 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    Three units in World literature or three units of B-Hum designated courses.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Explores the cross-cultural trajectory of a genre or genres of world literature. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

Why is auto/biographical writing so popular? Is it indicative of contemporary anxieties? A display of a collective nostalgia for the past? What is the link between reader and writer, writer and text, reader and text? What does our writing suggest about us? This course will address the aforementioned questions through the examination of the different kinds of life-writing writing that emerge from various cultures and serve as individual reflections on lived experiences, memories, fact, fiction, identity, time, space, politics, religion, gender and history (personal and collective). In addition, it will present: i) a succinct overview of life-writing, ii) literary and thematic analyses of selected texts from the 20th and 21st c. Students will have the opportunity to be both readers and writers of first person narratives; they will work independently on their bi-weekly journal entries and in groups when discussing and analyzing life-writings.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

Students will be able to:

  • Identify the different genres that life-writing encompasses and their most compelling features
  • Analyze texts and assess their significance (in contemporary life
  • Show how the relations between reader and writer, writer and text condition meaning
  • Develop writing and composition skills

Grading

  • Participation 10%
  • Midterm 30%
  • Presentation 10%
  • Term paper 25%
  • Bi-weekly journal entries 25%

Materials

REQUIRED READING:

Orlando: A Biography, Virginia Woolf, Oxford University Press, 1998, ISBN 9780192834737
Eleni, or, Nobody, Rea Galanakē, David Connolly, Northwestern University Press, 2008, ISBN 9780810118850
Self Impression: Life-Writing, Autobiografiction and the Forms of Modern Literature, Max Saunders, Oxford University Press, 2010, ISBN 978019161473
Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, Marjane Satrapi. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2003, ISBN 9780375422300
Paris to the Moon, Adam Gopnik, Random House LLC, 2001, ISBN 9781588361387

Registrar Notes:

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://students.sfu.ca/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS