The students will acquire analytical tools to analyse the autobiographical process and the cultural field in which it has become a fundamental “practice of the self.” The students will also learn to approach issues of autobiographical identity construction from an interdisciplinary perspective that draws on research in a wide range of disciplines, from psychology and neuroscience to literary and narrative theory, the social sciences and philosophy.

Western Cultures have increasingly become autobiographical cultures. Never before have so many (auto)biographies and other texts of life-writing been written and produced in a wide spectrum of literary, documentary, and performative genres and media – traditional and digital. Never before have so many people been concerned with remembering their individual past and its impact on the present. And never before have practices of autobiography been so intimately connected with the idea of self-exploration and, in fact, of self-construction. Today, autobiographical identity construction is considered to be a common and elementary “practice of the self.” Drawing on research in a number of disciplines concerned with the autobiographical process – from psychology and neuroscience to literary and narrative theory, the social sciences and philosophy – this course explores these phenomena and the cultural field in which it has become an anchor for the modern and post-modern self.

Contact studies 24h, independent studies 121h, introduction to themes and presentations and discussion in classroom sessions, thematic groupwork and reports, individual blogs, all supported by a Moodle platform.

Min-max number of students: 10-25

0 – 300 euros

For exchange and degree students of University of Tampere and Tampere University of Technology (academic year 2015-2016) courses are free of charge. Course fees for students not registered at the University of Tampere (or at the Tampere University of Technology) for the academic year 2015-2016. Further information: http://www.uta.fi/admissions/summer_school/fees.html.

http://www.uta.fi/admissions/summer_school/index.html

17-Aug-2015 – 21-Aug-2015

Numeric 1-5.

TBC

The course is part of University of Tampere Summer School 2015.
Please see the teaching timetable and lecture rooms (PDF) at: http://www.uta.fi/admissions/summer_school/courses.html.