Mares - Fletcher 313
Office Hours: TR 3-4 & by appt.

Jan. 17 - Introduction
19 - Virginia Woolf, A Writer's Diary + Biographical sketch

VW Links

Woolf Web

Virginia Woolf Seminar Bloomsbury: Books,Art, and Design (Toronto Exhibition)

24 - Woolf
• What does Woolf say about the diary form and her purpose(s) in keeping a diary?
• Reading through the Diary, what entries strike you as odd, surprising, or especially memorable?
• Your experience of reading the Diary
26 - Woolf (+pictures of Monk's House, Knole, Woolf and family)

31 - Woolf/ Writing Workshop
• Due: two or three questions or topics relevant to the readings that you believe are
 worth exploring and writing about, plus rationale and comments on any problems you anticipate
Feb. 2 - Woolf,  "A Sketch of the Past"
• Also read Shari Benstock's "Authorizing the Autobiographical" (in Women, Autobiography, Theory)

7 - Doris Lessing, Under My Skin
9 - Lessing

	Doris Lessing: A Retrospective Zimbabwe Reference Page "Similarities between Virginia Woolf and Doris Lessing" Article

14 - Lessing/ Writing Workshop - PAPER DUE IN CLASS - To see possible topics, click here.
16 - Lessing

21 - Adrienne Rich, "Split at the Root: An Essay on Jewish Identity"
23 - Rich, "Split at the Root" (cont.) + Sources
"Adrienne Rich: An Interview with David Montenegro"; excerpts from Rich's "The Genesis of 'Yom Kippur 1984'" and Albert Gelpi, "The Poetics of Recovery: A Reading of Adrienne Rich's Sources"

Adrienne Rich Site Hear an Interview Listen to her read "The Art of Translation"

28 - Toi Derricotte, The Black Notebooks (to p.116); Tape of Derricotte reading from
       The Black Notebooks (work-in-progress) at SBC
Mar. 1 - Derricotte + "Blackbottom" and "Notes on My Son's Face"
• Also read Mae Gwendolyn Henderson's "Speaking in Tongues: Dialogics, Dialectics, and the Black Woman Writer's Literary Tradition" (in Women, Autobiography, Theory)
• Writing Workshop -submit questions on the readings and topics for Paper #2

				Derricotte Site
			Listen to her read "The Weakness"

[Mar. 3 - Revised 1st paper]

Spring Break - March 3-12

13 - Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza
• Compare 1999 interview in text to 1993 interview with Donna Perry from Backtalk
• Select a poem to present from the group of poems at the end of Borderlands....
15 - Anzaldua
• Discuss her use of mythology in Borderlands. (Also see related websites below.)
• Read Lourdes Torres's "The Construction of the Self in U.S. Latina Autobiographies" (in Women, Autobiography, Theory)

								OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE Mural of Coatlicue Statues of Coatlicue (1) Statues of Coatlicue (2) Painting of Coatlicue/Christ Great Aztec Site
		Anzaldua site
					The Border [PBS - Excellent 'related links'] "Chicano" Chicano/Latino West & Borderlands

[ Friday: PAPER DUE - To see possible topics, click here.]

20 - Richard Rodriguez, "India" - from Days of Obligation
"Crossing Borders: An Interview with Richard Rodriguez," Scott London, The Sun
 (August 1997) ("...those tiresome Chicanos...")
Excerpts from "Richard Rodriguez Reconsidered: Queering the Sissy (Ethnic) Subject", Randy Rodriguez, and "Anti-pastoral and Guilty Vision in Richard Rodriguez's Days of Obligation," Paige Schilt (TSLL, Winter '98)
     SPECIAL PROJECT PROPOSALS DUE IN CLASS    
     [For proposal and project guidelines, click here.]

22 -    Writing Workshop

	Vivian Gornick (Photo by Sigrid Estrada)

  
27 - Gornick - Interview with Donna Perry from Backtalk
• What seems to be her purpose in writing this memoir?
• What are its strengths, in your judgement? Its weaknesses?
• What might one learn about writing from reading this book?
29 - J.M. Coetzee, Boyhood + biographical/critical sketch from Contemporary Authors

		Coetzee Homepage South Africa Reference Page
		Interview [On winning the Booker Prize]

Apr. 3 - Coetzee
• What seems to be Coetzee's purpose in writing this memoir?
• What are its strengths, in your judgement? Its weaknesses?
• What about this book might be especially valuable to you as a writer?
5 - Coetzee (cont.)
Reviews of Boyhood from the NYR (John Banville); Boston Phoenix (David Kurnick); New Statesman (Maurice Walsh); New Republic (Caryl Phillips); World and I (Judith Chettle)
    Paul Auster, The Invention of Solitude / Writing Workshop  

[7-  Partial draft of special project (or detailed progress report) due]

9 - Auster + Biographical sketch and critical comments (from CA and v. 47 of CLC)
• What seems to be Auster's purpose in writing this book?
• What is odd, surprising, or especially memorable about the book?
• What are the book's strengths, in your judgement? Its weaknesses?
• What about this book might be especially valuable to you as a writer?
12 - John Edgar Wideman, "Our Time" - from Brothers and Keepers (xerox)

17 - Wideman (cont.) + Wideman video (reading from Brothers and Keepers)
Luis Rodriguez, From Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.
• What works, for you, in Rodriguez's work? What doesn't work as well? Why?
[19 - No Class]

>>>>SPECIAL PROJECT PRESENTATIONS - Monday, May 1 at 1:30 p.m.<<<<

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Last updated 26 April 2000.