English 255 - Unreliabilities

This course is concerned with the problem of honesty in subjective expression.  We will study both fictional and non-fictional first-person narratives.  Some narrators deliberately deceive, and some deceive without intending to.  How does an elusive understanding of the self make even an “honest” narrator’s project of telling harder, if not impossible?  Readings will include works by Kazuo Ishiguro, Vladimir Nabokov, Joseph Mitchell, Janet Malcolm, Lauren Slater, and Geoff Dyer.  Students will be required to produce both critical and creative writing.  Creative writing experience preferred.  Writing attentive.

Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Visiting Writer Gaige.