ENGL 070V. Memory into Memoir

This workshop will focus on memoir: prose writing based on personal history. In our practice we will pursue the art and craft of transforming the raw material of recollected experience into written narrative. Students will explore creative techniques including approach, research, organization, and stylistic concerns, with the aim of producing a polished original memoir project. The larger conversation in the course will address issues ranging from definitions of memoir, the ethical obligations of memoirists, the emotional weight of sharing personal writing, and the place of memoir in the literary marketplace. The majority of class time will be devoted to discussion of participants’ ongoing work. In addition, students will be expected to read widely from selected memoirs by authors ranging from Augustine to Akwaeke Emezi. At the end of term, students will submit a final portfolio of their revised work.
Graded CR/NC. Limited to 12.
Humanities.
1 credit.
Catalog chapter: English Literature
Department website: https://www.swarthmore.edu/english-literature

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