‘History and Autobiography’
Jeremy D. Popkin
Dupont Seminar, National Humanities
Center, June 7-25, 2004
Jeremy D.
Popkin is professor of history at the University
of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky. He has recently completed a book on the relationship
between history and autobiography, History, Historians, and Autobiography
(University of Chicago Press, forthcoming 2005). Seminar participants are welcome to contact
him at popkin@uky.edu.
Book List
Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson, Reading Autobiography. University of Minnesota
Press, 0-816-628-831.
Olaudah Equiano,
Life of Olaudah Equiano. Dover,
0-486-40661-X.
Alexander Herzen,
My Past and Thoughts. Univ. of California Press, 0-520-042-107.
Henry Adams, Education of Henry Adams. Oxford U. P.,
0-192-823-698.
Margaret McCord, The
Calling of Katie Makanya. John Wiley, 0-471-246-913.
Ruth Klüger. Still Alive. Feminist Press at CUNY,
1-558-614-362.
Schedule of Readings
and Discussions
Mon., June 7:
Introduction to seminar and to issues of history and autobiography. Readings: Popkin, “History and Autobiography;” Eakin, “Living in History” in Touching the World,
138-80; Smith and Watson, chs. 1,
7.
Tues., June 8:
Olaudah Equiano’s Narrative
as Life Story and Historical Act. Readings: Equiano, Interesting
Narrative; articles by Carretta, “Questioning the
Identity of Olaudah Equiano,
or Gustavus Vassa, the
African,” in F. Nussbaum, ed., The Global Eighteenth Century, 226-35;
and Beverley, “The Margin at the Center:
On Testimonio (Testimonial Narrative),” in Gugelberger, ed., The Real Thing: Testimonial Discourse
and Latin America, 24-41.
Thurs., June 10:
session with Julia Watson, Ohio
State University. Readings: Smith and Watson, Reading Autobiography,
chs. 2-6.
Fri., June 11:
Alexander Herzen: Autobiography, Philosophy and Politics. Readings: Herzen, My Past
and Thoughts, 3-228; Malia, Alexander Herzen and the Birth of Russian Socialism, short
selections.
Mon., June 14:
Herzen in Revolution and Exile. Readings: Herzen, Past and
Thoughts, 229-444
Tues., June 15:
Henry Adams: America and Rome. Readings: Adams, Education of Henry Adams, chs. 1-20; C. Porter, “Henry Adams: The Posthumous Spectator” in Porter, Seeing
and Being, 165-204.
Wed., June 16:
Adams:
Mastering History. Readings: Adams, Education, chs. 21-35.
Thurs., June 17: An
African Girlhood. Readings: McCord, The Calling of Katie Makanya, 1-91; articles by Anne Goldman, “Is That What
She Said? The Politics of Collaborative Autobiography,” Cultural Critique
25 (1993) 177-204; Thomas Couser, “Making, Taking,
and Faking Lives,” Style 32 (1998) 334-50; Mark Sanders, “Theorizing
the Collaborative Self,” New Literary History 25(1994), 445-58; Katie
Makanya handout.
NB There is no seminar meeting on Friday, June 18.
Mon., June 21:
Africa and Modernization. Readings: Calling of Katie Makanya,
92-253.
Tues., June 22:
Holocaust Memory. Readings: Ruth Klüger, Still
Alive, first half; articles by Clendinnen,
“Witnessing,” in Clendinnen, Reading the Holocaust,
28-55 and Rothberg, “’The Barbed Wire of the Postwar World,’” in Rothberg, Traumatic
Realism, 107-40.
Thurs., June 24:
Session with Paul John Eakin. Readings: Klüger, Still
Alive, second half; Eakin, “Breaking Rules: The Consequences of Self-Narration,” Biography
24 (2001) 113-27.
Fri., June 25:
Concluding discussion. Readings: Popkin, “Historians’ Autobiographies and
Historical Experience.”