SELCS

Writing the Self in Postwar France: Aspects of Life-Writing


Course code: FREN4104
Course unit value: 0.5

Course description:

This option will address a range of aesthetic, political or theoretical issues which arise from the practice of modern ‘life writing’. Attention will be given to the particular socio-historical contexts of textual production in order to ascertain what differences and similarities there might be between the practice of ‘writing the self’ in the set texts. We will also consider the implications of the practice of reading ‘life writing’: does this mode of writing invite and/or impose an unwritten contract on the reader? How might reading soi-disant ‘literary’ texts be modified by theoretical issues/texts (and vice versa)? What issues of authenticity, believability and trust are aroused through reading ‘life writing’? Can ‘life writing’ be categorised as a specific genre? What are the formal and thematic differences between autobiography, memoir or diary, fiction and autofiction? We will also address differences which might be reflected in ‘life writing’ through, for example, gender and sexuality, and will discuss the relations between life, death and art, writing and identity, memory and the conscious and unconscious self. In addition to the set literary texts, there will be substantial reading required of additional non-literary texts (provided in xerox form).

Assessment: one unseen three-hour written examination (100%).

Tutors: James Agar.

Preparatory reading and set texts:

Jean Genet, Journal du voleur (Folio, 1949)

Simone de Beauvoir, La Femme rompue (Folio, 1967)

Roland Barthes, Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes (Seuil, 1975)

Hervé Guibert, Mes parents (Folio, 1986)

Annie Ernaux, La Place (Folio, 1983)

_____, La Honte (Folio, 1997)