From Augustine to Avatars: Personal Narratives Across Media

Course Number: 82-296

This course investigates the evolution of personal narratives, from early Christian autobiography to chronicles of war and exploration to the emergence of the modern memoir, and concludes with a look at storytelling in other media: blogs, vlogs, and social media. Who writes personal narratives, why, and for whom? What formal and stylistic qualities unite such narratives and mark them off from other genres? And how do these narratives change with the media used to render them? These questions will give students a new lens through which to view crucial concerns of our time: the relationship between public and private life; the possibilities and perils of self-expression; and the ways ideological and socioeconomic forces shape the stories we tell about ourselves. (This course is crosslisted with English 76-207.) 

The 12-unit option for this class is only for Russian Studies majors/minors doing extra work in Russian to complete their requirements.

View the Schedule of Classes for more details

Units: 9, 12
Prerequisite(s): None