FYWS 151-05, Telling Contemporary Secrets, Fall 2014

Abstract

In this writing seminar, we will consider the significance of secrets—for instance, about sex, surveillance, or the state—in contemporary American culture. Analyzing genres like the memoir, controversies like the NSA domestic spying program, and literary works like Chang-rae Lee’s Native Speaker, this course explores how secrets are maintained or disclosed, and what such secrets reveal about life in the presentday United States. What role do secrets play in determining who belongs to families, ethnic communities, and the nation? What do representations of secrecy suggest about contemporary understandings of memory, betrayal, and security?