The goal is to develop skills in creating narrative, moving between narrative and analysis, and deepening analytical skills. I think it’s worked well. Out of this personal writing students come up with a topic for research. The idea is to move from personal observation to a dialogue with the greater world of scholarship and commentary as the semester progresses.
We start with a reading from the novel Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian, in which his narrator recalls places in his childhood, while also questioning the efficacy of memory and the power of language. From there we read a variety of texts that feature narrative development and/or analysis.
We use in-class writing that’s then discussed in the students’ workshop groups. The writing is sometimes direct narrative from their experience, or writing that asks them to connect their own experience to those related in the texts we’re reading. In these efforts narrative techniques are practiced. From there, students begin to add reflections on the meaning of the narratives, which are similarly discussed.
Essay 1
For this first essay of the semester, you will actively think about and write about some aspect of your life that has helped shape your sense of self. You’ll have wide latitude in precisely what you want to write about. You might choose to focus on a single event, on a period of time in your life, or on a series of events that in your view are linked in some way. Importantly, whatever you choose to write about should matter to you. You should run your ideas by me and your group members as you proceed.
In this essay you will employ two key elements. You will:
1. Create a narrative about your life, using the creative writing techniques we discuss in class and others (use of powerful imagery, the five-senses, development of setting, characterization, use of metaphor, and other rhetorical devices) to create a compelling story or stories for your readers;
2. Use these narratives as a jumping off place to discuss, reflect upon, and consider their meaning and how they have contributed to or shaped your sense of self.
This essay might well make reference to your prior knowledge and/or books you’ve read or movies you’ve watched. But it’s not a research project. That comes later in the semester. For now your sources should be your own experience and prior knowledge, along with the insights you gain through your writing and our work in class. The reader of this essay should not only go away with a sense of a central aspect of your life but also with a good understanding of your views about how the factors involved have shaped you. Ideally this work should think critically about your life and your place, and consider how your experiences have helped form your self, while also raising questions about how your attitudes and views have been appropriated or exploited (i.e., what has been forced or insinuated upon you, what is your own).
IMPORTANT:
This essay is not a recitation of your biography. It needs to focus on events or aspects of your life you find to be crucial and then drill down for their meaning.
This essay is NOT a repurposing of your college application essay!
By the time you’re done, if you haven’t reevaluated or come to a new or deeper understanding of the experiences you’re examining, you have not really accomplished the purpose of this essay.
Due Dates:
1. Workshop review of first draft: Monday, September 24
2. Final draft: Monday, October 1
Length: > 1,500-words (5-6 double-spaced pages)
Formatting: 12-point type, Times New Roman or similar font, one-inch margins, pages numbered in top right corner or at bottom of each page. Submitted as Google doc.
Essay #1 Rubric:
Does the essay:
• Present a narrative or narratives that thematically address issues related, broadly speaking, to the formation of and “appropriation” or “exploitation”of self;
• Use narrative in a striking way to address deeper ideas, and does it interrogate these ideas with passion and precision;
• Employ a structure that is logical, effective, and striking;
• Use language in an original and powerful way, creating in readers a sense of surprise and delight;
• Adhere to the standards of written English, while additionally demonstrating an impressive understanding of audience and verbal register;
• Speak with authority to readers through the evident intensity of the writer’s engagement with subject matter?