ENGLISH 8E: Autofiction: Transforming the Story of the Self

Course Description

The rise of autofiction is the most significant reconfiguration of the relationship between reader, writer, and text in the past 20 years. Autofiction's negotiations between aesthetics and intimacy strike powerful chords with contemporary readers, transforming "plotless" books by Rachel Cusk, Karl Ove Knausgaard, and Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux into bestselling international literary sensations. In this Creative Critical course, students will engage autofiction and autotheory as both creative writers and scholars. We will seek to grasp the genre's scope, power, questions, and potential.