Fictions of Embodiment

How does fiction tell of the body? More importantly, how does it emerge from and get shaped by embodied identities? This workshop will examine the body and embodiment in the short story, the novel, and select memoir/nonfiction. We will incorporate close reading of text and weekly writing exercises, along with workshops of student writing. Possible texts include works by Alice Walker, Lynne Sharon Shwartz, Lucy Grealy, Nancy Mairs, Richard McCann, Richard Selzer, Mark Haddon, Laurie Halsie Anderson, Cortney Davis, Shyam Salvadurai, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Jose Saramango. Ultimately, the course will explore the interconnections of voice and body. In the words of Nancy Mairs, “No body, no voice; no voice, no body. That’s what I know in my bones.”