ENG 617 Memoir: Reading & Writing
This is a seminar on reading and writing the memoir. The course focuses on defining memoir as a subgenre of nonfiction and autobiography. Students read several memoirs, both historical and contemporary. Students are also encouraged to write their own individual memoirs, which means the course offers several workshops of student writing. Students consider personal truth, space, and responsibility in writing memoir, by writing prose that is definitive, clear, conversational, lyrical, and even investigative. Students read the memoirs of writers such as Lady Hyegyong, Tempest Williams, Tan, Hurston, Danticat, and Clive James. Writing in this course may lead to the Master’s Thesis.