Reading & Composition

This course will examine modes of confession, including its immediate catharsis of past transgressions, but also its use in autobiography: where does confession position the confessor within society? What does it reveal or conceal about the self, and how can it serve as a platform for memoir and identity construction? What are the rhetorical effects of a professed sincerity, versus a confession which flaunts its own insincerity? We will explore these questions, among others, across texts from a range of eras and genres, including works from the Archpoet, Augustine, and Nabokov. This course satisfies the university R/C requirement, and as such will include frequent essay assignments and revisions. In addition to building skills as critical readers and writers, students will learn how to conduct scholarly research and integrate this research in their own academic writing.