What I want my students to learn is to incorporate theory into their understanding of writing. That is, I want them to understand that while memory seems immaterial and natural, it is really so much more. I consider this particular assignment the first of several -- but what I want them to end up with is an understanding that memory is always infused with meaning making. People don't remember events without having told a story (in their minds) about those events. "While the experience represented in an autobiographical narative seems simply personal, it is anything but merely personal. Mediated through memory and language, 'experience' is already an interpretation of the past and of our place in a culturally and historically specific present" (Smith and Watson 24).
I am trying to create a disciplinary context into which their reading of published memoirs and their writing of their own memoirs can fit. My aim is to get them to understand that the function of memoir is to tell a personal story that has signficance for a greater audience. That simple "navel gazing," a term applied to memoir by skeptics, is not our goal. We must see our experiences in terms of their connection to a greater audience.
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2 comments:
The rationale fits tightly the assignment. Nice job
Donna, this assignment and rationale seem very fully realized and I can't think of anything, off the top of my head, that still needs to be addressed. The main question I think I'd still have as a student would be how much credit I'd get for the assignment as a whole, as I can imagine the assignment series taking quite a bit of time to work on.
This assignment seems well designed to elicit interesting, lively writing that won't be tedious for the instructor to read--that emphasis on the sensory element will keep it real.
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