Writing Self through Gender

We plan, in this class, to take that strange animal, the memoir, and turn it on its head. Memoir is best thought not merely as "who am I," but more centrally as "where do I belong." Part of belonging is seeing yourself and being seen, being naked to yourself and the world at large. This nakedness tends to expose our fears, fears which can be addressed through understanding, self-exploration, and self-revelation. We plan to address one aspect of that fear, the fear of being seen as a gendered person, through memoir, understood here broadly as any text (written, audio, visual, performative) that engages in real self-exploration. We will be employing various media to facilitate self-exploration, including personal essays, audio, video, performance, etc. Each week students will be expected to read short personal essays and listen to/watch relevant audio and visual pieces. Students should come to class prepared to discuss how gender participates in the formation of identity, and how this understanding can aid with the development of memoir. Students will also be expected to keep a journal, from which they will ultimately draw their final project, to be presented to the class. This course calls for self-revelation, both through the final project and throughout the semester. Therefore it will require courage. But fear not: we're all in this together.

The class will meet for two hours each week for twelve weeks. People of all backgrounds and levels of experience are encouraged to attend.