Contemporary Memoir on Disability and Chronic Illness
Course Description
Summary
The body of creative nonfiction written by disabled and chronically ill writers has bloomed particularly in the last ten years, into what critic Kate Roberts calls “a new style of chronic illness storytelling.” Rather than just about the individual perils of illness, these works render as well the sociopolitical registers––the racialized and gendered experiences––of being sick. Julietta Singh’s No Archive Will Restore You plumbs the perilousness of the desire to be memorialized in an archive, to make the body an archive, while detailing Singh’s neurological degeneration. Esmé Weijun Wang recalls her schizoaffective disorder diagnosis while critiquing the history of the DSM. Shahd Alshammari’s Head Above Water: Reflections on Illness is a rare look at the experiences of disabled Arab women. We will read short and book-length creative memoir written by disabled and chronically ill writers since the 2010s, as well as key selections from the 1980-2000 as a point of comparison. Students should expect to read 50-60 pages per week and to write a final essay incorporating both creative and critical elements.
Learning Outcomes
- Familiary with literature and theory of disability and chronic illness
- Development of creative and critical nonfiction writing
- Increased fluency with comparative literary analysis