ENGL 048 PZ -Autotheory Workshop

Institution: Pitzer

Description: How can autotheory respond to and disrupt externally developed constructs, particularly in the digital age? In this course, we will develop a practice of autotheoretical modes of writing and artmaking. Autotheory is work that engages in thinking about the self, the body, and the peculiarities of one’s lived experiences as processed through or juxtaposed against theory. As we make material from our own lives, we will continue to inquire, What does autotheory do? What new things does it offer us? Potential readings include Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee, a work of autoethnography, which emulates the experience of the struggle to speak, and consists of uncaptioned photographs, tellings of the lives of saints and patriots, and letters; Christina Sharpe’s In The Wake: On Blackness and Being, wherein Sharpe uses the multiple meanings of “wake” to illustrate the ways Black lives are determined by slavery’s afterlives; Hilton Als’ The Women, a three-part meditation on the concept of the “Negress,” a label that Als applies to himself as well as his subjects; and Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts, an autotheoretical memoir that experiments with citation. Students will undertake their own experiments and compose autoetheoretical writings and multimedia projects as well as a final essay. In workshop students will regularly share writing and provide feedback to support the work of their peers.

Prerequisite(s): See the current course schedule for registration restrictions.

For up-to-date information on current course offerings and details, please refer to the Pitzer class schedule on MyCampus2 Portal .