| How does a writer take actual events from his/her life and transform them into a memoir that speaks to all readers, regardless of their life experience? We will practice and explore key literary techniques such as: scene, summary, and musing; framing, and seamlessly moving from one time period to another. We will engage vigorously with the ethics of nonfiction: how does one write painful things about people who are still living? How much creative license--if any--is acceptable in a memoir? And we will read many exemplary pieces of memoir--both essay-length and book-length. Most of all, students will write various pieces of memoir, themselves. Part of class time will be devoted to peer critique of student work ("workshopping"), and part to discussions of craft and close reading of published memoir. There will be weekly writing assignments--both creative and critical--and students will submit a final portfolio of finished work. In addition, students will have several out-of-class assignments: eavesdropping somewhere on campus or at home with a notebook, attending a local reading, and conducting interviews with family members or other significant figures from their lives. PLEASE NOTE: Permission from the instructor is required for this course. Students should submit a 5-8 pp. sample of creative nonfiction or fiction, and include with that sample: their name, class year, major, email address, and phone number. (Samples can be sections from a longer piece, and if you do not have a sample of creative nonfiction or fiction, then any piece of prose will be fine.) Submissions should be dropped in Professor Fox's English Department mailbox, located in Allen 314 by April 6. |
