MPW 999/ Section 39203: Memoir as Performance: Finding Your Own True Voice

3 Units

Spring 2009 Semester, Mondays 4:00 – 6:40

Location: WPH 400

Instructor: Dinah Lenney

Office Hours: Please email me to arrange individual meetings.

“Memoir is not what happened… It is what has happened over time, in the mind, in the life as it attends to these tantalizing, dismaying, broken bits of life history. Such personal writing is, as the essay is, ‘an attempt.’ It is a try at the truth. The truth of a self in the world."

Patricia Hampl

Introduction and Purposes:

The bestfirst person narratives are as much about "thewho" as "the what"; as in who's telling the story and why. Over the course of the semester we'll reada sampling from the genre--several books, as well as excerpts andstand-alone essays --which students will be expected to discuss in class. Additionally, I'll assign each student a memoir I think has some sort of direct relationship to his or her work, having to do with either structure, content, orvoice.Meanwhile, students will be writing in and out of class with a view towards developing bothapproach and material.You'll discover that regardless of how sensational or ordinarythe recollected events, it'svoicethat makes a memoir jump off the page.Your goal as awriteris to dig deep and get personal with a view towards honing your unique literaryvoice as well asyour reasons for telling your story.Each studentwill be expected toworkshopat least two piecesduring the semester, and should finish the coursewithtwo self-contained essays; or two chapters, for those working on a book-length project.

Course Requirements and Grades:

Reading list: The Boys of My Youth, Jo Ann Beard

The Bill from My Father, Bernard Cooper

Safekeeping, Abigail Thomas

Running in the Family, Michael Ondaatje

There will be additional hand-outs (subject to my whim, and the nature of class discussion the week to week.) Students should read closely and be prepared to contribute to class discussion. While we are interested always in content and context, the idea is to focus on the writing and aspects of craft; on whether or not the writer’s voice and structure intrigue and engage the reader in his or her subject. We’ll be critiquing student work in the same way; work-shopping pieces according to a schedule that we’ll determine at our first meeting. In the best of all possible worlds, every student will work-shop at least two different pieces in class. From time to time, working writers and editors will be invited to speak about their work. On those occasions, students will be given ample time and opportunity to acquaint themselves with the guest lecturer’s background, and to come up with appropriate questions for in-class discussion. Active participation and engagement is crucial in response to assigned reading and writing, as well as to in-class writing exercises.

About grades: Please keep in mind this work is subjective in nature; I won’t be grading your talent, but rather evidence of effort, discipline, and progress. The importance of revision cannot be under-estimated.

Participation: 15 %

Assigned work, reading and writing: 20%

Original work generated throughout the semester: 65%

Course Schedule:

Jan. 26 INTRODUCTIONS AND OVERVIEW

In class writing: I Remember

Feb. 2 LISTS

Feb. 9 GOOD BEGINNINGS AND BEAUTIFUL SENTENCES

Feb. 23 POKING FUN: THE IMPORTANCE OF HUMOR

March 2 LEAVING OUT THE BEST PARTS

March 9 COMING OF AGE

March 23 STRUCTURE: ANYTHING GOES

March 30 RELATIONSHIPS

April 6 TRAUMA

April 13 MAKING A SCENE: DIALOGUE

April 20 FICTIONAL STRATEGIES

April 27 DON’T BE THE HERO, DON’T BE THE VICTIM

May 4 ENDING IT ALL

Mary 4 LAST RITES

A Sampling of Suggested Reading in no particular order:

Calvin Trillin, Messages from My Father

Lucy Grealy, Autobiography of a Face

Alice Sebold, Lucky

Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking, The White Album

Abigail Thomas, A Three Dog Life

D.J. Waldie, Holy Land

Blake Morrison, And When Did You Last See Your Father?

Michael Ondaatje, Running in the Family

Frank Conroy, Stop-Time

Sven Birkerts, My Sky Blue Trades

Vivian Gornick, Fierce Attachments

Tobias Wolff, This Boy’s Life

Geoffrey Wolff, The Duke of Deception

Dorothy Gallagher, How I Got My Inheritance

Terri Jentz, Strange Piece of Paradise

Rachel Cusk, A Life’s Work

Laura Blumenfeld, Revenge: A Story of Hope

Stanley Alpert, The Birthday Party

Patricia Hampl, I Could Tell You Stories

Virginia Woolf, Moments of Being

Ann Patchett, Truth and Beauty

Bernard Cooper, The Bill from My Father

Sleeping Arrangements, Laura Cunningham

Samantha Dunn, Faith in Carlos Gomez

Glenn Kurtz, Practicing

Eudora Welty, One Writer’s Beginnings

But don’t just read memoirs, read fiction, plays, poems, first person narrative in literary journals, magazines, and newspapers, listen to music, go to museums, acquaint yourself with artists and their voices, that’s the idea…

Statement for Students with Disabilities

Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me (or to TA) as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.

Statement on Academic Integrity

USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of academic honesty include the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation that individual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligations both to protect one’s own academic work from misuse by others as well as to avoid using another’s work as one’s own. All students are expected to understand and abide by these principles. Scampus, the Student Guidebook, contains the Student Conduct Code in Section 11.00, while the recommended sanctions are located in Appendix A: http://www.usc.edu/dept/publications/SCAMPUS/gov/. Students will be referred to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards for further review, should there be any suspicion of academic dishonesty. The Review process can be found at: http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/SJACS/.