English: Reading Memoir

Advanced study in literary genres, forms, and themes. Representative topics: Noir in Fiction and Film; Great American Race Novel; Post-Apocalyptic Fiction. May be repeated for credit with different content. Topics vary by offering; periodic offering at intervals that may exceed four years. Credit not awarded for both ENGL 3100 and ENGL 5100. Prerequisites: ENGL 1500, ENGL 2000; English major, Secondary Education with a concentration in English, or English minor; minimum Junior standing.

Prereqs enforced by the system: ENGL 1500 and 2000 Minimum Junior standing; PACE students with permission and override

[PLEASE NOTE: English 3100, Reading Memoir, is offered in conjunction with English 2700, Writing Memoir. Although not mandatory, students are encouraged to register for both classes in order to receive an expanded and cohesive understanding of the genre. Please contact Prof. Huh for registration questions.] When self-help icon Elizabeth Gilbert published her 2025 memoir All the Way to the River, she received major backlash for its graphic content and allegations of exploitation, including a murder plot. Recounting her relationship with her late partner, Rayya Elias, All the Way to the River tells of Gilbert’s co-dependent and enabling relationship with cancer-stricken Elias that many critics deemed inappropriate, intimate, and unflattering. The controversial reception of Gilbert’s memoir highlights the complex popularity of recent memoirs and its rapid rise. Some of the questions this seminar will explore include: What is memoir and why is it so immensely popular? How do questions of permission, authenticity, and exploitation complicate the author-reader relationship? In other words, what struggles do authors navigate in order to tell their stories? What do readers expect, demand, and/or reject in these stories? Who can tell these stories, oftentimes very personal and intentionally left hidden? Reading Memoir explores these questions by examining the genre on two levels: 1) an introduction to the variety of memoir types (coming-of-age, family relationships, healing/survivor, transformational, abuse, disability) and 2) a close reading of the various forms and structures of the genre (chronological vs. reverse chronological, braided, thematic, multi-genre, graphic, essays).

Active class participation, weekly attendance, critical reading.

Weekly Reflections, class presentation, final paper/project.