Sickness in Storytelling: The Effects of Chronic Illness on Memoir and the Author

The thesis will be in two parts, research and creative. The first part will be a research-based paper exploring how the creation and content of memoir is influenced by authors with chronic illness, and the difficulties and unique perspective these authors bring to the craft of memoir will be investigated. The second part will be a short memoir that tells a personal story of living with an autoimmune disease, systemic lupus erythematosus. This first-person narrative will fluctuate between memories of personal experience, information on lupus, and self-reflection. Together, these parts will explore different aspects of chronic illness in memoir

The 'memoir problem', revisited.

The ‘memoir problem’ revisited “That you had parents and a childhood does not of itself qualify you to write a memoir”. Neil Gunzlinger, book reviewer for the New York Times, griped in a review of yet another confessional memoir. It’s true; suddenly everyone is writing memoir, even people who only ever wrote fiction, rock music or poetry, or never wrote before. I even find myself writing memoir, but mining some of my own fictional writing for triggers and nudges, delving into old poems for clues and lines of inquiry. After all, the memory does not always linger on. Now, since revisiting this autobiographical writing as a resource for chapters of my Creative Nonfiction PhD thesis, a food memoir, in this paper I’ll discuss attempts made to fictionalise the ‘true’ events of the stories, and the uses made of them, to revitalise memoir. I also reflect on the work of controversial memoirist Karl Ove Knausgaard, whose six-volume work, ‘My struggle’, has offended members of his extended family, critics and purists, or simply bored many readers with the impossibly detailed accounts of his life, to ask again of memoir, “Should it be artful or truthful?

My Story as a First-Generation Student from Vietnamese Immigrant Backgrounds and Implications for Asian American Students

Expressing myself in my own voice has never felt so liberating and uplifting, especially when it comes to writing in the academic world. Thanks to the Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) methodology of Dr. Robert Nash, I have a chance to share my voice from my perspective as a marginalized student. Neither of my parents went to college. What does this mean for me as an Asian American first-generation student? What does my background say about me, specifically as a student and generally as an individual person? What are some of the obstacles and opportunities in my journey and in my education? How do my own stories connect to others from similar backgrounds, and hopefully to others from different backgrounds as well? What do I want my readers to take away from my own learning experiences? In my thesis, I discuss my experiences as a first-generation student from my Vietnamese background. I describe in detail about my family backgrounds, some major events in my childhood, and how these changes shape who I am today. In order for me to move forward, I need to pause and rediscover my roots, my heritage, and my family\u27s values and learn to appreciate them. I discuss my experiences of going to high school and college in the U.S. I also explain how I experience the issues of race and social class when living in the U.S. I address some of the obstacles that I face as well as the opportunities that arise throughout my journey. What have I learned from these experiences thus far? I believe that sharing my story gives me the opportunity to connect with other students, educators, and administrators in higher education. This will allow us to acknowledge some issues that students of color have and how we can work together to address these issues. Based on my experiences, I have made some recommendations for students of color, especially Asian American first-generation college students. I also have some recommendations for educators when working with this marginalized population, specifically students from underrepresented groups and students from first-generation backgrounds

The Cowl - v.47 - n.11 - Nov 14, 1984

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Vol 37 - No. 11 - November 14, 1984. 16 pages

Spartan Daily, November 9, 2006

Volume 127, Issue 43https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/10301/thumbnail.jp

Access Magazine, December 2013

https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/accessmagazine/1011/thumbnail.jp

The Cowl - v.38 - n.1 - May 9, 1984

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Vol 38 - No. 1 - May 9, 1984. 22 pages

Faith, Learning, and Success in Mennonite High Schools: What’s Working at Eastern Mennonite High School?

The story about Eastern Mennonite was written based on the perceptions and representations of what the participants said related to what was working and why. Every effort was made to portray the perspectives of those interviewed to get an accurate picture of what Eastern Mennonite was doing to help students be successful, engaged in school, and develop a faith

Faith, Learning, and Success in Mennonite High Schools: What’s Working at Eastern Mennonite High School?

The story about Eastern Mennonite was written based on the perceptions and representations of what the participants said related to what was working and why. Every effort was made to portray the perspectives of those interviewed to get an accurate picture of what Eastern Mennonite was doing to help students be successful, engaged in school, and develop a faith

Scottish fantasy today

The question that arises, when one is asked to talk about Scottish fantasy today, is whether this simply means fantasy texts that come out of Scotland, or whether there is currently a genre that might be labelled 'Scottish fantasy' which is significantly different from fantasy that comes from anywhere else. The unique status of Scottish fantasy has been a well-established tenet of Scottish literature and criticism, but the dominant genre at the end of the twentieth century is contemporary, urban and realistic. Can we still assert that there is a distinctively Scottish fantasy genre, which is neither retrospective nor nostalgic, but which uses traditional elements to produce texts relevant to the modern world? I have a vested interest in saying yes, a claim I'll now attempt to substantiate