Autobiographical Writing: Writing About Illness (TTh 12:00)
DESCRIPTION/OBJECTIVES: Students in this course will engage on the page with the challenges of writing about illness, their own and others,’ and with subjects such as the motives for and ethics of doing so, and the personal and cultural meanings given to illnesses. One concern will be the often fraught relation between formal/aestheticizing and thematic concerns: for instance, pain and suffering, in resisting literal description, open up the play of metaphor; at the same time, there are imaginative dangers in regarding pain and illness metaphorically.
The course will begin with an overview and discussion (by way of G. Thomas Couser’s Memoir: An Introduction) of personal narrative, essay, autobiography (in different modes, including poetry), and memoir, particularly as related to “wounded storytellers” (Arthur Frank) and the challenges of “regarding the pain of others” (Susan Sontag); over the semester we will critically consider examples of each genre. For the most part, though, we will proceed through writing exercises and through drafting and work-shopping autobiographical essays about experiences of and with illness in the widest senses, including the illness and suffering of others (work in a hospital); the illnesses of family and close friends (a relative with Alzheimers or autism); experiences with one’s own illness, pain, and suffering, whether physical and/or mental, ranging from temporary illnesses (the flu), to periodic or chronic illnesses (migraines, debilitating or degenerative conditions). We will aim to inhabit these experiences as places to think, act, and feel from.
REQUIRED TEXTS: G. Thomas Couser, Memoir: An Introduction (available at Revolution Books); a course pack including critical essays about autobiographical writing, along with narratives (in prose and poetry) about illness (available from Kinkos), including works by Anatole Broyard, Arthur Frank, Audre Lorde, Joan Didion, John O’Donohue, Mary Oliver, Elaine Scary, Susan Sontag. The course pack will be supplemented as well by postings on Laulima, which will serve as the course website.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Much of the work for this course will be done in class, with responsibilities to your classmates, so attendance is mandatory. There will be about 25 pages of graded writing, along with regular writing exercises. Course grade will be based on the following: attendance, exercises, and participation in workshops (20%), two shorter essays (20% each = 40%), a final essay (40%).