Survivors' Stories

This course requires extensive reading and daily writing (online and in hard copy). Because this course takes place during an intensive two-week module, short response essays and annotated bibliographies rather than long documented essays are the norm. Given that this course emphasizes the reading of literary works (listed below, study of electronic resources, viewing of films, discussion, critical analysis, critical assessment, etc., July 23, 2008, 8 p.m. CDT, is the deadline for the completion of the required reflections paper.

This distance-learning course is taught on line. Expertise in keyboarding, e-mail communication, world wide web exploration, along with daily access to computer (including broadband, DSL, and/or dial-in capacity) are prerequisites. Each participant must have access to the internet as well as a computer system capable of handling online electronic resources, discussions and (if feasible) one-hour chats. The course, consisting primarily of asynchronous online sessions, requires approximately a minimum of 40 hours on-line time during the two weeks of the module.

Participants use "Desire to Learn" (D2L) as the delivery system for the online portion of the course in order to analyze and assess many kinds of narratives (textual, visual, online) by those individuals who have survived disasters and catastrophes‑‑both personal and collective. We will study memoirs, oral histories, documentary films, dramatizations, and online sources (e.g., personal narratives, art, photography, scholarly essays) by and about survivors of wars, family violence, abuse, catastrophes, illness, and other subjects. Online discussion forums analyze such issues as survivor's guilt, reparations, reconciliation, and resiliency. Samples of topics are on "topics" pages (linked to home page above). Each participant makes a contract for the grade that she or he wishes to earn in the course. To earn an A in the course, an individual must participate on a daily basis. In addition, a participant must complete all reading and writing assignments, including the final reflections essay due on July 27, 2008.

REQUIRED READINGS AND FILMS:

Dorothy Allison Two or Three Things I Know for Sure
Sidney Finkel Sevek and the Holocaust: the Boy who Refused to Die

James McBride The Color of Water
Survivors of/after September 11 (online narratives)
Selected WWW online readings (interviews, blogs, essays, etc.)

Films: OPEN CITY; TWO WOMEN; THE LOST CHILDREN OF BERLIN; EUROPA, EUROPA; THE LONG WAY HOME; THE LAST DAYS; THE PIANIST; RHAPSODY IN AUGUST; THE SOLDIER'S HEART; BE GOOD, SMILE PRETTY; BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA; TREVOR; MA VIE EN ROSE; THE ORPHAN TRAINS, THE LOST BOYS OF SUDAN, THE BELIEVER, UNCHAINED MEMORIES, IN THEIR WORDS, and others. Many films are on 24-hour reserve in the ERC at the MSU Library. Most films are also available at local and area video/DVD rental stores.

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I'm only supposed to tell one story at a time, one story. Every writing course I ever heard of said the same thing. Take one story, follow it through, beginning, middle, end. I don't do that. I never do.
Behind the story I tell is the one I don't. Behind the story you hear is the one I wish I could make you hear. Behind my carefully buttoned collar is my nakedness, the struggle to find clean clothes, food, meaning, and money. Behind sex is rage, behind anger is love, behind this moment is silence, years of silence.