WRCM 215 - The Personal and/as The Political: Memoir and Social Commentary

FC ARHU WINT

4 credits
Writers such as James Baldwin, Carmen Maria Machado, and Victoria Chang use memoir as a vehicle for interpreting the interconnected dynamics of self, family, community, and state. In this class, we will examine how the personal and political overlap in productive and engaging ways. Researching the tools, tropes, and techniques of the memoir style, students will write both analytically and within the genre of the memoir, creating a series of essays that explore the interplay between the personal and the political. The readings and writing assignments in this course will center around memoir and autobiography, with a special attention to the relationships between personal narrative and psychosocial or political commentary.