American Biography
Dr. Karen Manners Smith
Spring,
1999
(AH 522 B, 6:30 - 9:20
pm Tuesday)
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course is designed to introduce
graduate students and upper level undergraduates to biography as a branch
or discipline of history. In this course we will examine the historiography
and theory of biographical writing and we will investigate the experience
of practitioners of biography, paying particular attention to the problems
of writing biographies about women, minorities, and the marginally famous.
We will talk by conference phone to two well-known biographers who will
share with us their ideas about research and writing in biography.
We will read a number of short and full-length biographies for discussion
in class, and each student will write a biography for a seminar paper.
We will visit local archives and libraries that hold print and manuscript
sources which may suggest biographical subjects for student papers.
OBJECTIVES
Students completing this seminar
will understand both the uses and the limitations of biography as a branch
of history. They will read several classic biographies, and they will learn
how to scrutinize text and notes for content and meaning as well as clues
to research and writing technique. Through their own experiences
in researching and writing biographies, and through exploring the experiences
of other biographers, they will become familiar with both the problems
and rewards of biographical writing. They will learn how to approach
and use archival and manuscript sources, and they will be able to use biographical
resources and research methods in subsequent historical research and writing.
The seminar format will help students learn to critique the research and
writing of their fellow students, and to incorporate useful advice and
criticism into the final drafts of their papers.
READING LIST:
1. Oates, Stephen B.: Biography
as High Adventure. U Mass Press
2. Oates, Stephen B. To Purge
this Land with Blood: A Biography of John Brown U Mass Press
3. Sandoz, Marie: Crazy Horse:
The Strange Man of the Oglalas U of Nebraska Press
4. Kroeger, Brooke: Nellie Bly:
Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist Basic Books
5. Goodwin, Doris Kearns: No Ordinary
Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the Homefront in WWII
Simon and Schuster
6. Hersh, Seymour: The Dark Side
of Camelot Little, Brown and Co.
7. A biography of an American entertainer
-- your choice. Rec.: Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe,
etc.
For more information, contact:
Professor Karen Manners Smith
phone: (316) 341-5570
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