Brevity and the Personal Essay

Brevity publishes well-known and emerging writers working in the extremely brief (750 words or less [sic]) essay form. We have featured work from two Pulitzer prize finalists, numerous NEA fellows, Pushcart winners, Best American authors, and writers from India, Egypt, Ireland, Spain, Malaysia, and Japan. We have also published many previously unpublished authors, and take a special joy in helping to launch a new literary career.
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That’s what the editors at Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Fiction have to say about their online literary journal.

Here’s your assignment: Write a concise personal essay (750 words or fewer) about a significant relationship in your life. It could be a relationship with a person, a group, a place, an object, or something else. In writing your essay consider the literary elements that we have investigated, particularly voice, organization, storytelling, description, and reflection. Use these elements to characterize the relationship and to develop a theme (or themes). (Use the class readings as models.) 

A first draft will be due on Wednesday, October 10. In class on October 10 you will self-assess and peer-assess drafts. A final draft will then be due on Friday, October 12.

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Reminders:
Your assignment for Wednesday night is to write a paragraph reflecting on your six-word memoirs and your "bridges" in relation to Phillip Lopate's ideas about personal essay writing.

Bring the reflective paragraph to class Thursday 10/4 along with your six-word memoirs and bridges. 

Your assignment for Thursday night is to annotate two personal essays, "Stories from My Mother" and "Becoming a Sanvicentena: Five Stages". Bring the readings and annotations to class on Friday 10/5. 

Fleshing out your personal narrative: Building bridges between your six six-word memoirs.

Tonight you're going to write sentences that link your six six-word memoir together in a coherent manner. Your goal is to make sense of the six-word memoirs as a whole. The linking sentences might be narrative (a sequence of events); they might be reflective and explanatory; they'll probably be a mixture of both. Make your writing vivid. Consider voice and tone. (Diction and syntax will affect voice and tone.) Consider creating suggestive characterizations, evocative images, and revealing comparisons (analogies, juxtapositions, allusions, metaphors, similes). Play around with the tools of memoirists and personal essay writers.

Bring a complete typed or handwritten draft to class tomorrow. This will be your ticket to participate in class.

Responding to Rhetoric: Your Choice

Tonight's assignment is to post a comment (300+ words) on the blog in which you informally but thoughtfully analyze the piece of rhetoric you chose to bring to class last week.
I'm particularly interested in you exploring and explaining how choices made by the creator(s) (the essayist, reporter, poet, writer, filmmaker, artist, musician) contribute to purpose.

Responding to "Old Father, Old Artificer" (a chapter in Fun Home by Alison Bechdel)

In the comment box extend today's discussion with a response of 300 words or more. (If Blogger tells you your response is too long, split your response in two. Don't forget to compose your response in a word processing program before pasting it into the comment box. Refer to yourself by your first name and last initial.)

There are various ways you could extend the discussion: you could go deeper into something we have already talked about; you could make new connections between things we've talked about; you could delve deeply into a page, panel, or passage we have yet to discuss; you could respond thoughtfully to something someone said during the discussion.

Whatever you discuss make sure you explore, on the one hand, theme (or purpose or message) and, on the other hand, the artist's use of rhetorical and literary techniques.

For themes we talked about the relationship between appearances and reality, between surfaces and hidden depths. We talked about the relationship between parents and children (particularly fathers and daughters) in terms of influence and resistance to (and defiance of) influence, in terms of gender roles and expectations, and in terms of affection and emotional distance.

Some rhetorical and literary features and techniques we talked about were comparisons and juxtapositions that highlight meaningful similarities and differences; suggestive visual imagery, both written and drawn; other forms of indirect and direct characterization; nonlinear narrative structure; narrative reflection on events; historical and mythological allusions; narrative voice including diction, syntax, punctuation, and tone.

Go beyond our discussion. Explore. Develop.

I look forward to your responses.

Analysis of Something Else...

Tonight (9/26) your task is to annotate (or take double entry notes) on the rhetorical or artistic creation that your class voted for earlier today. You will bring these notes to class tomorrow (9/27); the notes are your ticket into a Socratic Seminar.

A-block.
You stopped by 2207 before heading home (or, at least, you were supposed to) to pick up an excerpt from Ten Days in a Mad-House. When taking notes pay particular attention to how the speaker establishes credibility (ethos).

F-block.
You voted for "Gangnam Style" a music video by Korean musical artist, Psy. (Some context: Gangnam is one of the most affluent areas of Seoul, and one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in all of South Korea. ) When taking notes consider the question, why is this an international YouTube hit? Consider elements of the video, the music, and the lyrics. Also, consider the possibility that there is some irony or satire involved in the video's popularity. (Satire of what? Irony where? In the video? The lyrics?)

Here is an English translation of the lyrics (quoted from the Business Insider website):

Oppa* is Gangnam style
Gangnam style
A girl who is warm and humanly during the day
A classy girl who know how to enjoy the freedom of a cup of coffee
A girl whose heart gets hotter when night comes
A girl with that kind of twist
I’m a guy
A guy who is as warm as you during the day
A guy who one-shots his coffee before it even cools down
A guy whose heart bursts when night comes
That kind of guy
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Now let’s go until the end
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh
A girl who looks quiet but plays when she plays
A girl who puts her hair down when the right time comes
A girl who covers herself but is more sexy than a girl who bares it all
A sensable girl like that
I’m a guy
A guy who seems calm but plays when he plays
A guy who goes completely crazy when the right time comes
A guy who has bulging ideas rather than muscles
That kind of guy
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Beautiful, loveable
Yes you, hey, yes you, hey
Now let’s go until the end
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style, Gangnam style
Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh
On top of the running man is the flying man, baby baby
I’m a man who knows a thing or two
On top of the running man is the flying man, baby baby
I’m a man who knows a thing or two
You know what I’m saying
Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady, Oppa is Gangnam style
Eh- Sexy Lady oh oh oh oh

*Older brother

Six-Word Memoirs

Tonight you're going to write six six-word memoirs (or memoir vignettes).
(Type or hand write neatly. Bring to class tomorrow.)

Let's start with some definitions.

A memoir is an account of one's life, including personal experiences and observations of one's surroundings. Memoirs differ from autobiographies in that they tend to focus (1) on memories from a particular section of one's life and/or (2) on personal development, whereas autobiographies tend to focus (1) on one's life as a whole and/or (2) on one's life as history.

A memoir vignette is a scene from one's life that leaves the reader with a particular impression of one's self, one's development, one's environment.

So each of your six-word memoirs could sum up a particular section of your life, or show personal development, or focus on a particular scene from your life that leaves the reader with a strong impression of yourself and/or your environment.

How to get started?

You might begin by brainstorming particular moments in your life that have stayed with you. These moments could be big and personal. Running away from home for four hours on a Sunday. Going to Boston on the train with friends for the first time. They could be big in your environment. The birth of a sibling. The remarriage of a parent. They could be small but memorable. The sight of tall ships in the harbor when you were six. The feeling of cold water on your back when your tent started leaking on a camping trip. Etc. You could weave in some general statements about your childhood too. I was too scared to talk to adults when I was young. I thought a lot about how to stay out of hell.

Then choose some parts of your brainstorm to shape into six-word memoirs. Think seriously about word choice, punctuation, and syntax. Consider connotation (the association words have beyond their literal meaning) and tone (ironic? contemplative? dour? witty? objective? emotive?).

Here are some examples from my reflections on this class:
My Southie memories are not MacDonald's.
Spent summer thinking about food, ecosystems.
Spontaneous revision. Ironic cannibalism. End slavery. 

Follow these links for more examples of six-word memoirs.

Six-word memoirs at Smith magazine.

Six-word teen memoirs at Smith magazine.

Six-word memoirs from Not Quite What I Was Planning.
(The above link has an audio story about six-word memoirs too.)

Six-word memoirs at National Public Radio (with accompanying art).
(If you'd like you could create a sketch or sketches to go with your six-word memoirs.)

Rhetorical Analysis Reflection

 1. Post your strongest work that I have not yet collected in the comment box. (Post only one!)
I know a lot of you worked hard on these to prepare for class. Our discussions were rich and productive. I want to honor that work here on the blog too.

Options: Clinton speech SOAPSTone (identify and discuss the significance of each part of the SOAPSTone); or "A Modest Proposal" paragraph analysis (What is Swift satirizing? How does the section you were assigned contribute to Swift's rhetorical effectiveness?); or you could type up your notes on the Banneker letter rubric, rhetorical analysis essays, and teacher comments.

Please use your first name and last initial when posting. 

2. Answer the poll questions in the right margin ---------------------->
Post a comment below declaring that you answered the poll questions.

Complete this work by class time on Monday (9/24).