Hi Antonia, Would you please respond to Liberating Scholarly Writing by Robert Nash here? Choose one specific quote that interests you and quote it here. Then write your response.
"A memoir is what writers compose when they use subject matter to explore their personal "personae." A personal narrative essay reverses the focus. In this latter instance, writers use their personae in order to explore subject matter other than themselves." (28) In chapter 2, "What is Scholarly Personal Narrative Writing?" Nash writes how Vivian Gornick explains the difference between memoir and personal narrative. Gornick states that memoir writing focuses exclusively on the self and personal narrative, although it involves the person, goes beyond the self and addresses more universal and social themes. SPN ( Scholarly Personal Narrative) gives action to ordinary scholarly writing therefore is not as dry or hard to understand. Personally I feel memoir writing is an easier discipline to follow. You are recording part of your personal history. While this may or may not resonate with the reader it is your story. I feel the SPN is more difficult because there are many dimensions and it has multiple focuses. There are less rules. It is hard to be everything at once; academic, personal, universal, profound and lighthearted. Sometimes it is hard to make something personal and universal at the same time without sounding trite or moralistic. I feel that a person has to be a really enlightened and skilled author to make the SPN work.I
"A memoir is what writers compose when they use subject matter to explore their personal "personae." A personal narrative essay reverses the focus. In this latter instance, writers use their personae in order to explore subject matter other than themselves." (28)
ReplyDeleteIn chapter 2, "What is Scholarly Personal Narrative Writing?" Nash writes how Vivian Gornick explains the difference between memoir and personal narrative. Gornick states that memoir writing focuses exclusively on the self and personal narrative, although it involves the person, goes beyond the self and addresses more universal and social themes. SPN ( Scholarly Personal Narrative) gives action to ordinary scholarly writing therefore is not as dry or hard to understand.
Personally I feel memoir writing is an easier discipline to follow. You are recording part of your personal history. While this may or may not resonate with the reader it is your story. I feel the SPN is more difficult because there are many dimensions and it has multiple focuses. There are less rules. It is hard to be everything at once; academic, personal, universal, profound and lighthearted. Sometimes it is hard to make something personal and universal at the same time without sounding trite or moralistic. I feel that a person has to be a really enlightened and skilled author to make the SPN work.I