ENGL5576 · English

Topics in Creative Nonfiction: Writing the Family, Past and Present

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

In this writing workshop, we will read and write creative nonfiction about the family, using the subject as a lens through which to explore a number of topics, among them memory and post-memory, the ethical issues around writing about ones own family, expansive definitions of family, the use of archival and genealogical resources, the incorporation of images, and the ways in which writing about family can open up into explorations of history, sociology and psychology. Students will spend the first part of the semester researching and writing about a family member who is no longer alive (and whom the writer may or may not have known) before turning to writing about family in the present or recent past. They will write and revise two substantial essays and give a presentation on a memoir of their choice. Readings may include texts by Suzanne Berne, Marianne Hirsch, Gish Jen, Mary Karr, Maxine Hong Kingston, Yiyun Li, Janet Malcolm, Hisham Matar, James McBride, Dani Shapiro, Joan Wickersham and Tobias Wolff.