Irish Autofictions: Self Discovery and the Construction of Identity

How do we interpret novels that draw on many "real" events from the author's life? What puzzles arise as these fictions collapse the traditional tripartite author-narrator-character distinctions? Where are the boundaries between autobiography, memoir, autofiction, and fiction? Are these generic distinctions even helpful tools? This seminar will investigate such questions through Irish fictions centered on self-discovery and identity formation. Course texts are notable not only for their novel explorations of these themes, but also for their formal innovations.