Instruction Mode: Online
Professor: Multiple Professors
Resource(s): | Type | Description | Required | Other | Course Package. Memoir: Life in Story (Pearson Publishing) |
Required | Other | Frey, James (2003). A Million Little Pieces. New York: Talese/Doubleday. |
Optional | Other | Barrington, Judith. Writing the Memoir, 2nd ed. Portland: The Eighth Mountain Press, 2002. |
Optional | Other | Karr, Mary. The Art of Memoir. New York: HarperCollins, 2015. |
Applicable student group(s): Various student groups taking General Education Electives
Course Details:
Module 1: Traditions & Trends in Life Writing (Weeks 1-3)
(A) Overview: What is a Memoir?
- Introduction to Life Writing
- Definitions, genre characteristics
- Introduction to Gutkind’s “5 Rs”
Select readings may include:
- “Writing Memoirs” – Course Pack
- Orwell: “Shooting an Elephant”
(B) Style in Memoir
- Purpose, authorial voice, and tone
- Concepts of time and tense
Select readings may include:
- Kincaid: “Girl”
- Danticat: “Women Like Us”
(C) Emerging Trends in Life Writing
- Use of Social Media formats
- Online Memoirs and Communities
Select readings may include
- posted materials in SLATE
Assessment(s): Quiz 1 (10%); Journal 1(10%); Social Media Analysis Assignment (10%)
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Module 2: Constructing Truth in Life Writing (Weeks 4-6)
(A) Memoirs of Childhood
- Adopting perspective and style
- Knowing the unknowable and the spectre of false memory
Select readings may include:
- Banks: “My Mother’s Memoirs, My Father’s Lies”
- Gates: “What’s in a Name?”
- Gregory: “Shame”
- Dillard: “So this was Adolescence”
(B) Telling the Truth
- Accuracy and truth in memoirs
- Understanding “truth” (intent/understanding) vs. “Truth” (factual/verifiable data)
Select readings may include:
- Frey, James A Million Little Pieces (selected chapters)
- Posted materials on SLATE
Assessments(s): Journal 2 (10%)
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Module 3: Social and Cultural Context in Life Writing (Weeks 7-10)
(A) Racial and Ethnic Identities
Select readings may include:
- Staples: “Black Men in Public Spaces”
- Malcolm X: “A Homemade Education”
- Satrapi: “The Veil”
- Equiano: “Journey into Slavery”
- Hirsi Ali: “Excerpt from Infidel”
(B) Migration and Diaspora
Select readings may include:
- Engkent: “Why my Mother Can’t Speak English”
- Geddes: “Growing Up Native”
- Hopkins: “My People Will Never Believe Me Again”
- Lu: “From Silence to Words: Writing as Struggle”
(C) Disabilities and Illness
Select readings may include:
- Didion: “‘After Life’ From the Year of Magical Thinking”
- Didion: “In Bed”
- Keller: “Everything has a Name”
- Keller: “Three Days to See”
- Mairs: “On Being a Cripple”
- Tempest Williams: “The Clan of One-Breasted Women”
(D) Gender and Sexuality
Select readings may include:
- Kingston: “No Name Woman”
- Pigott: “Chicken-Hips”
- Gunn Allen: “Where I Come From is Like This”
- Daniel: “Goodbye Husband, Hello Wife”
- Rodriguez: “Complexion”
- Sanders: “The Men We Carry in Our Minds”
- Stone: “From Fearless to Afraid at Bryant University”
Assessments(s): Journal 3 (10%); Quiz 2 (10%)
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Module 4: Trauma and Recovery (Weeks 11-14)
(A) Writing Pain and Grief
Select readings may include:
- Excerpts from Romeo Dallaire’s Shake Hands with the Devil
- Posted materials on SLATE
(B) Forgiveness and Reconciliation
Select readings may include:
- Excerpts from Romeo Dallaire’s Shake Hands with the Devil
- Posted materials on SLATE
(C) Course Summary and Evaluation
Assessments(s): Journal 4 (15%); Personal Memoir and Analysis (20%)