Aaron Greenberg

The art of life writing includes yet transcends the genres of (auto)biography, memoir, confession, diaries, journals, and social media posts. It is a way of life, a creative practice, a performative invitation of past, present, and future selves. As an essential skill of self-representation beyond the classroom, life writing is ideal for exploring the roles of memory, time, authority, and experience in creating individual and collective identities. This seminar will engage key figures across the span of life writing, including Frederick Douglass, who, regarding biographical details such as his age and parents, writes, “I know nothing; the means of knowing was withheld from me.” As we experiment with innovative tools for writing life in the 21st century, including voice-based composition, we’ll consider the styles and effects of life writing, including its power to discover as well as create knowledge. Other texts may include St. Teresa’s Life, Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir, Tara Westover’s Educated, and Ben Franklin’s Autobiography. Authors including ­­Sidonie Smith, Julia Watson, Leigh Gilmore, and Ben Yagoda will provide critical context for our discussions. Students will create 15-20 pages of formal, revisable, and publishable writing across three short essays and two in-depth revisions. FYS I guides students through college-level writing, establishing foundations for FYS II and upper level Liberal Arts classes.

In “Becoming Human,” students will explore diverse representations of non/humanity across eras and locales, engaging humanity not as a fixed entity but a continuous process influenced by power and cultural shifts. FYS II develops college-level writing skills, preparing students for upper-level Liberal Arts courses. Students will create original research and textual art around topics including human rights, the Anthropocene, (post)humanism, anthropomorphism, (non)human exceptionalism, anthropogenesis, mimesis, and becoming. We’ll develop and refine the writing skills learned in FYS I while experimenting with generative writing and research methods. Students will leave this course with a portfolio of original, publishable writing, as well as a foundational grasp of the history and futures of humanity. Students will create 20-25 pages of formal, revisable, and publishable writing across three short essays and two in-depth revisions. Students will also learn to write a research paper, practicing scholarship to enhance creativity. We will engage with authors and artists including Ovid, Bruegel, Giorgio Agamben, Yuval Harari, Donna Haraway, Rosi Braidotti, and Franz Kafka.

What is the meaning of life? How does life translate to the page and canvas? In this course, we will practice the art of writing by representing its relations to life. FYS II develops college-level writing skills, preparing students for upper-level Liberal Arts courses. We’ll focus on still lifes—among the most enduring, versatile, and overlooked art forms—which illuminate new perspectives on the lives of artists and the lives of objects we represent. Authors including Lisa Knopp and Norman Bryson will provide critical context for the course, while artists including Alice Neel, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger, Juan Sánchez Cotán, Jonas Wood, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso will set the table with examples of the genre. However, students will develop writing projects around still life artists of their choice. We will experiment with ekphrasis, the detailed written description of visual art. We’ll write about art that portrays the interplay of life, death, and (in)animacy, as we consider the history of ideas represented through still lifes including: the limits and possibilities of genre, vanitas, memento mori, and subject/object relations. Students will create 20-25 pages of formal, revisable, and (if they choose) publishable writing across three short essays and two in-depth revisions. Students will also learn to write a research paper, using scholarly constraints to enhance creativity.