First-Year Seminars 110SE - Images of the Self

This course will look at how the question Who am I? has formed works of literature. We will investigate how identity is formed or not formed by forces such as society, circumstance, and family. We'll examine body image, race, gender, class, personal voice, perception, and ancestry. Course material will be drawn from poetry, fiction, drama, memoir, and film, including Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior and Shakespeare's As You Like It, as well as shorter readings by Emily Dickinson, Adrienne Rich, Dorothy Allison, Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jamaica Kincaid. Students will have the opportunity to explore who they are, both as individuals and as writers.