Problems in American Autobiography

FAIN: FB-12348-74

James M. Cox
Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH 03755-1808)

Primary aim of seminar will be to establish an original and authoritative relationship with a dominant strain of American literature. Secondary aim will be to develop a sufficiently workable definition of autobiography in general so that a genuinely critical reading of any autobiography will be possible. Autobiographies or autobiographical works will be studied ranging from Benjamin Franklin to Malcolm X. Among those studied will be: Jefferson, Frederick Douglas, Thoreau, Mark Twain, James Baldwin, Norman Mailer. Reading of, reports on, and discussion of texts will be first half of seminar. Second half will consist of presentation of seminar papers each member giving at least one report and paper on one or more books read during the seminar.