In this course, we’ll explore the intersection of creative nonfiction and autotheory. “Autotheory” is often used to describe writing that blends personal narrative, critical theory, philosophy, and cultural analysis.

We’ll ask questions like: 

• What is autotheory? 
• What does it do? 
• What traditions and scholarship has autotheory emerged from and why? 
• What does autotheory make possible? 

Through readings, viewings, discussions, and writing and other creative exercises, we’ll study how autotheory is used to explore and articulate personal experiences, identities, and cultural phenomena. 

Readings may include work by: Gloria Anzaldua, bell hooks, Julietta Singh, Maggie Nelson, Saidiya Hartman, Christina Sharpe, Claudia Rankine, Frantz Fanon, and Roland Barthes, among others. 

Independent and collaborative assignments may include weekly reading and responses, short experimentations with our own autotheoretical work, book reviews, presentations, and a final project.