Faculty First Year Seminars 191POL21 - Literary Hoaxes: Lies, Law, a

We?re accustomed to writers adopting pen names, and we certainly expect that novelists and poets will make up characters and stories that differ from their own lives. But is it okay for a white person to write a story from the perspective of a person of color? What if that writer uses a pseudonym that misleads the reader about their ethnic identity? What if a writer claims to have grown up in poverty, spent time in prison, or survived cancer?.when they didn?t? What legal rights do readers have to know the ?truth? about the identity of an author or the life of a memoirist? And what do we do with a book once we discover the author is not who we thought they were?

From deceptive nom de plumes to fake memoirs to usurped identities, literary hoaxes have a way of infuriating?and fascinating?the reading public. In this course, we will explore legal, political, and popular responses to instances of authorial deceit, as they reflect evolving questions about identity politics, authenticity, and cultural appropriation; about the commodification of suffering; and about truth-seeking in the era of fake news.

Freshmen Only