Sections offered FALL 2022:
#32196 |
STACEY BROWN |
ASYNCHRONOUS |
WEB |
CLASS NOTES: IUB GenEd A&H credit; COLL (CASE) A&H Breadth of Inquiry credit
Class meets 100% Online with a combination of Synchronous and Asynchronous instruction. For more information visit https://covid.iu.edu/learning-modes/index.html
“Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin.”
–Barbara Kingsolver
The nature of memory is elusive and slippery. Our most conscious understanding of our own past is often filtered through multiple emotional lenses, as well as everything that has transpired since, and whenever we seek to reproduce or render past events, we inevitably end up (re)constructing them. When it comes to writing about childhood, especially, where many of our memories are derived from stories we’ve been told about ourselves, how can memory be anything other than fallible? How, then, can anyone claim to write a “true” life story?
This class will examine several contemporary memoirs through the lens of memory, specifically its limitations, constructs, and relativity. Within a greater contextual analysis of our cultural fascination with “reality,” we will investigate the distinctions between literal and emotional truth with an eye toward how each author navigates the tricky terrain of the past on their way to the nonfiction bookshelves.