CRWR 24023/44023 Advanced Nonfiction Workshop: Coming of Age Memoir
Where does childhood end and adulthood begin? For Wordsworth growth happens in reverse. “The Child is the father of the Man,” he wrote in 1802, yearning to recall the fundamental joy of a rainbow. Proust was eager to forget his schooldays: “We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us.” In this class, students will search their lives for events and lessons which they may consider formative, together evaluating the standards they use to qualify rites of passage, in order to isolate unique patterns of growth that students can call their own. Half the quarter will be dedicated to discussing original student work. A multitude of possibilities will be offered by readings of contemporary memoirists from all walks of life. By the quarter's end, each student will have laid down the groundwork for a dexterous memoir about surviving the challenges of their youth, and in doing so perhaps even imagine a future that is less prescribed and more personally fulfilling.
Friday 12:30pm-3:20pm
Instructor consent required. Apply via creativewriting.uchicago.edu. Attendance on the first day is mandatory.