{"id":167167,"date":"2024-03-28T11:03:36","date_gmt":"2024-03-28T15:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=167167"},"modified":"2024-03-28T11:03:36","modified_gmt":"2024-03-28T15:03:36","slug":"syllabus-diaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2024\/03\/28\/syllabus-diaries\/","title":{"rendered":"Syllabus: Diaries"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"

Lahiri at Boston University, where she attended graduate school, in 1997.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve kept [a journal] for decades\u2014it\u2019s the font of all my writing,\u201d Jhumpa Lahiri told Francesco Pacifico in her Art of Fiction<\/a> interview, which appears in the new Spring issue of <\/em>The Paris Review. \u201cThat mode, which involves carving out a space in which no one is watching or listening, is how I\u2019ve always operated.\u201d She described a class she recently taught at Barnard on the diary, and we asked her for her syllabus for our ongoing series; hers includes a wide range of texts which all carve out that particular, intimate space.<\/em><\/p>\n

Course description<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

What inspires a writer to keep a diary, and how does reading a diary enhance our appreciation of the writer\u2019s creative journey? How do we approach reading texts that were perhaps never intended to be published or read by others? What does keeping a diary teach us about dialogue and description, or about creating character and plot, about narrating the passage of time? How is a diary distinct from autofiction? In this workshop we will evaluate literary diaries\u2014an intrinsically fluid genre\u2014not only as autobiographical commentaries but as incubators of self-knowledge, experimentation, and intimate engagement with other texts. We will also read works in which the diary serves as a narrative device, blurring distinctions between confession and invention, and complicating the relationship between fact and fiction. Readings will serve as inspiration for establishing, appreciating, and cultivating this writerly practice.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Schedule<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Week 1: Susan Sontag, Reborn: Diaries and Notebooks, 1947\u20131963<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Week 2: Andr\u00e9 Gide, Journals<\/i> and The Counterfeiters<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Week 3: Franz Kafka, Diaries, 1910\u20131923<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Week 4: Virginia Woolf, A Writer\u2019s Diary<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Week 5: Carolina Maria de Jesus, Child of the Dark<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Week 6: Cesare Pavese, The Burning Brand: Diaries 1935\u20131950<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Week 7: Bram Stoker, Dracula\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Week 8: Robert Walser, A Schoolboy\u2019s<\/i> Diary<\/em>;\u00a0James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Week 9: Leonora Carrington, Down Below<\/i>; Primo Levi, \u201cHis Own Blacksmith: To Italo Calvino\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Week 10: Annie Ernaux, Happening<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Week 11: Lydia Davis, \u201cCape Cod Diary\u201d; Sarah Manguso, Ongoingness<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Week 12: Alba de C\u00e9spedes, <\/span>Forbidden Notebook<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Week 13: Alba de C\u00e9spedes, Forbidden Notebook<\/i><\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThat mode, which involves carving out a space in which no one is watching or listening, is how I\u2019ve always operated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68590],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-syllabi"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSyllabus: Diaries by Jhumpa Lahiri<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"March 28, 2024 \u2013 \u201cThat mode, which involves carving out a space in which no one is watching or listening, is how I\u2019ve always operated.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2024\/03\/28\/syllabus-diaries\/\" \/>\n<meta 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