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Few narratives project the impression of the 'unvarnished truth' quite so persuasively as those written from the first-person perspective, especially when the narrator relates to us the events of his or her life. And yet modern psychological specialists in fields as diverse as juridical testimony and psychoanalysis tell us that such accounts are often fraught with the taints of bias, forgetting, and sometimes outright distortion. Whether unintentionally or deliberately insinuated into the text by the author, such taints also animate first-person narratives, from autobiographies, to novels, to outright literary mystifications. What, then, constitutes the compelling force of the first-person perspective? How is a narrator's reliability established or undermined? How are formative experiences framed in the text? And can we, as readers, discern where the objective truth ends and the fiction begins? Moreover, does it matter? In this course, we shall consider these questions in light of modern psychological findings, as well as the notion of the "Autobiographical Pact" and Roland Barthes' essay "The Death of the Author." Required Texts: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions Instructor(s): Suzanne Braswell Time(s): Mon. and Weds., 10:00 - 11:30 am Place(s): Old Little Theatre, Room 160B << Back |
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