English 353 - Readings in Literary Biography

Biography is both a literary genre and a mode of literary scholarship. This course will explore some varieties of the biographical impulse in both fiction and nonfiction. We will begin with eighteenth-century models: Samuel Johnson and James Boswell. Then we will examine Freud's influence on Bloomsbury writers like Lytton Strachey and Virginia Woolf. We will conclude with experiments in biography by writers such as Gertrude Stein and Janet Malcolm, along with some attention to biographical writing today.

This course is open to juniors and seniors; Prereq: 8 credits from the department.