English 316 - Immersive Accompaniment: Reading the Bildungsroman

(Offered as ENGL 316 and SWAG 316) “Whence comes my help?” “From where does your strength come?” The psalmist and Adrienne Rich ask these questions, which we will face while we read coming-of-age narratives that fit in a genre known by its German name, the Bildungsroman. These novels go beyond the pilgrimage out of adolescence, and into explicit representation of intellectual, aesthetic, and spiritual growth experienced in unison with sexual development, awakenings, thrills, mishaps, and marriage. We will pay attention to how we immerse ourselves into the condition of those who grow on the page; not to “identify” with the characters, but to accompany them. From our immersive accompaniment we will re-emerge–intentionally–to write about how we progress, digress, regress, and grow some more. As we read we will explore many terms and theoretical concerns: Erik Erickson on life stages; Donald Winnicott on holding environment and object relation; Jacques Lacan on mirrors and interminability of desire; Silvan Tomkins on affects and nuclear scripts; Shoshana Feldman on re-reading, un-learning, en-gendering, and–again–desire. Readings will likely include: Roland Barthes, A Lover’s Discourse; Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot; Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre; Ayad Akhtar, American Dervish; James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain; Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God; Richard Powers, The Overstory; English 270 Fall 2023, The Lift of Rocks Uphill: Epistolary coming of Age Short Stories. The coursework includes four short pieces of writing and a substantial Capstone Project. Expect frequent co-editing (cluster) workshops, and small-group (clique) discussion sessions besides the regularly scheduled class meetings. Spring semester. Senior Lecturer B. Sánchez-Eppler.

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Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: emphasis on written work, readings, artistic work.