2020-2021 Academic Catalog 
    
    Mar 29, 2024  
2020-2021 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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ENG-224 Writing Biography


Analysis of Texts (TA) Writing/Research Intensive (WR)
Any FYW
Biographers write histories of lives. Their storytelling is often novelistic but their standards of evidence are those of the historian. They confront distinctive questions: What lives are worth writing? What is the relationship between the individual and society? What rules govern the relationship between biographers and their subjects? How has the art of biography changed over the centuries, and what forces have driven those changes? 

In this course, we’ll read both notable biographies and the critical literature on biography. We will apprentice ourselves to leading biographers to understand the craft, and we will develop the research tools necessary for uncovering and narrating lives that illuminate our world. The course will be workshop-based with students sharing their creative work, exploring prose techniques, and offering peer critique. 4



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