Understanding Autobiographical Writing

Transcription

1 Understanding Autobiographical Writing Story about an important person / event Go beyond the ordinary Examples: Complicated relationships (person) Complex emotions (revelation) i.e., finding or losing faith in something or someone perhaps God Cultural or societal lessons (gender, racial, or religious)

2 Autobiography Significance Conflict (resolved or not) Protagonist vs. Antagonist Meaning? Why is this significant to your life?

3 Public Exposure (Be comfortable with the topic) Is it too recent? Is it too traumatic?

4 Organization (chronological?) The traditional short story has the following parts: Exposition (background info, setting, etc.) Rising action(protagonist vs. antagonist), Climax (highest tension), Falling action (right after the climax, and Resolution (dénouement) character wins, loses, or accepts situation. Note: autobiographical stories end with a reflective paragraph (why significant?/ what was learned?)

5 Sensory Details and Figurative Language Use all of your sense (sight, smell, etc.) & Metaphor, simile, and personification

6 Goals: self discovery and insight (human condition)

7 Red Flags Too recent: significance not known Too traumatic (self-disclosure issues) Cliché (general rite of passage prom, first kiss, etc.)

8 Autobiographical Strategies Visual Descriptions Naming (use specific names for people, places, and things) Detailing (color, shape, size, and texture) Comparing (simile or metaphor) Examples: He drove the car Ted drove the Mustang on Highway Six. Speedy Ted raced the red Mustang down tattered Highway Six. Like a flash of lightening, Ted raced the red Mustang down tatter Highway Six.

9 Conveying the autobiographical significance Telling How you felt at the time of the event How you feel now (upon reflection looking back) Showing Details - setting, characters, etc. Actions / plot The combination creates a dominant impression (positive or negative/ happy or sad/etc.) In Gray s essay Father her details, action, and dialogue suggest anger, disgust, and pity (ambivalence / mixed feelings)

10 Narrative Cueing Verb tense markers (past, present, or future) / Autobiographical = past We swam in the ocean = past After lunch we swam in the ocean I had seen on the way to the hotel. (already completed in the past, had ) I jumped into the water. I had been waiting for the perfect wave. (past perfect progressive, had been waiting, signifies an ongoing past event interrupted by another past event) Mom made us get out and took us back to the hotel, but she said we would swim again after lunch. (predicts future action) Temporal transitions (time markers) Examples: when, just after, before, still, no longer, one afternoon, for a week, after a few days, etc.

11 Framing Echoes something from the beginning in the ending: a setting, a feeling, a quote (thought), or an action Example: Perhaps your story starts with your mother holding your hand at the beach and ends with you holding your daughter s hand (the essay Calling Home starts and ends with a car ride)

12 Conversation Dialogue quoting: Yes, I can swim! (use a new paragraph for each new or changed speaker) Summarizing gives the gist of what was said: I told them I could swim.

13 Anecdotes vs. Recurring Events Anecdote brief story of a one time event One afternoon... Once when I was thirteen... (locates event to a point in time) Flashback: takes reader into the past (a different point in the past) relates story to an earlier event for clarity If your autobiographical essay is focused upon a significant person, you will use various anecdotes and / or flashbacks to convey the person s importance

14 Recurring Events things that happened more than once Every Sunday we would go to Perkins after church. Spending Sunday with Dad meant football and pizza rather than conversation and bonding (suggests that the author spent more than one specific Sunday with Dad, and the days were similar).