Reference no: EM132211315

Question: The assessment should be 1 full page, typed, double-spaced and conform to the formatting and content guidelines for the course.

Prompt: We began the semester with an objective historical text, South Carolina in the Modern Age, from which we have culled our shared knowledge of the history of South Carolina. The two remaining texts we will read depart from objective history and delve into personal history. Each of these texts-Red Hills and Cotton, Lemon Swamp - belongs to the literary nonfiction genre called memoir. Memoir, from the French term meaning memory, is distinct from autobiography. Whereas autobiography tends to tell the story of a life from beginning to end, memoir concerns transformative events, usually rooted in a place. These events, though personal, reveal more than personal history: they inform and are informed by historical circumstances of time and place.

For this assessment, detail how you would write your memoir. If a memoir requires an engagement with one's immediate community, what personal event(s) and what particular place(s) would ground your story? How do these localized, personalized details have purchase within the larger community? How does the personal reveal the historical? (Note that you will not write your memoir, but write about what you would include, explaining connections between the personal and public. Note, too, that your memoir does not have to be confined to South Carolina. Root your memories in their place.)

Try to limit yourself to one or two events and places so that you can give a detailed sense of how place, history, and the personal intersect. Do not feel the need to be overly personal if you do not wish to be. Only share what you feel comfortable sharing, while illustrating your grasp of the genre of "memoir."