Fall 2026 ENG 271-001: Introduction to Literature: Genre
Autofiction
8/24/26-12/18/26
CRN: 72425
Meeting days: TR 1:30-2:45apm Location: KUY 408
Instructor: Christina Nakyong Lee (leecn@hawaii.edu)
Office Hours: T 9:00am-10:00am (or by appointment)
Office Location: KUY 222 (or Zoom)
Autofiction is a genre that can’t make up its mind. Is it fiction, or nonfiction? Some say that autofiction is a story of the author’s life that takes the creative liberties to fictionalize scenes, timelines, and events to get to a higher emotional truth (while still telling the story of their life), while others say that autofiction is a genre in which the author shares the same name with their protagonist/narrator but is placed in fictionalized worlds. In the latter, autofiction becomes a meditation on writing itself. A reflection of the author’s process. We’ll see much of this when we read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and the 2002 film Adaptation.
What is the purpose of embedding autobiographical fragments in a work published as a fiction? Tim O’Brien’s says: “A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth.” O’Brien’s statement is what we’ll be interrogating over the course of the semester. We’ll be reading six primary texts beginning with an excerpt of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried and end with watching a film together, The Farewell, based on director Lulu Wang’s real-life experiences.
While this course focused on genre, our discussions will eventually meander into related territories such as audience expectation, tokenism, and representation in social media/contemporary forms of self-narration.
The ultimate question is: How much of the work is autobiographical and does it matter? What makes it matter?
Since this is an Introduction to Literature course, we’ll start by learning how to summarize readings and identify what passages are effective to use for evidence. Then, we will learn how to analyze, or interpret these works. These smaller written assignments will eventually lead into your analysis paper. The final project will be a 1500-word literary analysis or creative piece. We’ll be doing lots of writing activities in class to help you get started on those papers.
This course may be of particular interest to you if you are in or planning to be in the literature, life writing, and/or cultural studies fields.
Tentative Assignments:
- Summary Assignment
- Finding Passages as Evidence Assignment
- Literary Analysis paper
- Final Project: Analysis or Creative Paper
- Peer editing workshop
- Lead the Discussion presentation
- Final exam
Required Texts (All other texts will be provided):
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers
The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong