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A filmmaker I know created an audio project about sharing difficult stories, and I thought I would post it here as her ideas behind the project connect well to our class themes. I wouldn’t say this is oversharing per say, but they certainly involve candor and breaking taboos around speaking about the body and other […]

Here is a draft of one of the Anthology section summaries.  It is looking good and might be a helpful model for others.–CH SECTION SUMMARY: SEXUALITY AND SELF-DISCLOSURE Nicola Certo, Liz Foley and Kat Vecchio  Each public disclosure of a private reality becomes something of a magnet that can attract others with a similar frame […]

Dear All, To follow up on our discussion in class re. a title for our anthology. We decided that we would go with “Persona” unless there were alternatives. So if you could post any alternative suggestions in the comments below, we can set up an electronic vote this week. Alternative title suggestions need to be […]

Working TOC for Shared Anthology for MALS 70000 (Oversharing and Inventing the Self)   Possible Titles   Possible Subtitles   Private Selves, Public Worlds Shared Selves, Private Selves Persona Self Selfhood from the Inside Out   An Anthology on Selves Invented and Revealed An Anthology on Self Invention and Revelation An Anthology on Self Expression […]

Hi All, I placed the working abstracts for Anthology Day into the Dropbox…here it is in pdf form. I will print out enough copies for everyone tomorrow…. See you tomorrow!  Carrie   Abstracts for Anthology Day

If you are due to have your paper workshopped, you need to place it in the Dropbox…now.  Overdue!

On May 5th, we will be joining Professor Tougaw’s class for “Anthology Day:” Room 6496 from 6:30p, – 8:30pm.    

Workshop is beginning!  I see three drafts in the dropbox–expecting the fourth this morning at the latest. By Monday afternoon or evening, everyone needs to have written a brief response to the draft.  It does not have to be long–maybe a page or slightly less than a page.  You do not have to write full […]

I mentioned in class last night an interview where Sheila Heti talks about the differences in the Canadian and U.S. editions of How Should a Person Be?  It was published in The Millions back in 2012, which is right around when the book came out in the United States.  I think it sheds an interesting light […]

The following is an excerpt from the anthology “Should I Go to Grad School: An Interview with Sheila Heti. This was published by Bloomsbury on May 5, 2014. http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/should-i-go-to-grad-school-an-interview-with-sheila-heti Shirley  

Here is the schedule for our draft workshops: April 21st workshop [Draft or portion of the draft must be in the dropbox by April 15th] Adam Watson Sarah Cohn Zoë Simpson Lisa Rodriguez   April 28th workshop [Draft or portion of the draft must be in the dropbox by April 22nd] Maple Wu Mattheus Oliveira […]

Life Writing through Blogging by Adolescents By: Shirley P. Grant For my research paper, I would like to look at life writing through personal blogging. My primary research will focus on a blog by a teenager that is written in the form of a personal diary. The blog is called, “The Life of a Troubled […]

While on a deep research dive for my paper, I came across “Say Everything” an article by Emily Nussbaum in New York Magazine from 2007 that looks at oversharing as generational rebellion on par with the advent of rock n’ roll. She writes, “It’s been a long time since there was a true generation gap, […]

Sheila Heti, in the introduction writes, “In this way, I should be satisfied with being famous to three or four of my friends. And yet it’s an illusion. They like me for who I am, and I would rather be liked for who I appear to be, and for who I appear to be, to […]

1) On page 77, the following conversation occurs between Israel and Sheila Heti: SHEILA HETI: “He disagreed with me when I said you can love anyone.” ISRAEL: “No you can’t,” he said.  “It matters – the person you’re with.” Do you think the following conversation signifies that Sheila and Israel value status over love?  In […]

After changing my topic for the final paper about a billion times, I think I finally made the final change…   In today’s society there are multiple avenues of social media that enter a social media user’s daily activities. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Tinder, Grinder, Blogs, Flicker, and even LinkedIn are all considered popular outlets […]

So far this is what I am aiming to present as my final paper… A girl does not transition into womenhood solely after she attends school then obtains a ‘grown up’ job, love plays a major role. In my paper, I want to write about how a girl transitions into womenhood through her love and sexual experiences which includes many high’s and […]

1) In his open and unapologetic (?) discussion of racist values within gay desire, McBride spends the first 6 pages framing the chapter. This extensive reflection on the topic of discussion, the gay marketplace of desires, reflects seriously on the implications of starting the conversation McBride notes that, “[he] come[s] not to this work as […]

1. At page 3 of the introduction Robert Reid-Pharr says about the goal of his essay: “[…] I am groping for a method by which to bridge the divide between theory and practice, to break down barriers between the ways I think about American life as a professional critic and the manner in which i comport myself in my everyday […]

I read Black Gay Man by Robert F. Reid-Pharr and it led me to ask myself some questions. 1. The author uses the derogatory language of negro queer, colored sissy and nigger faggot.  Did these terms offend anyone or did their use  by an African-American and homosexual writer make using those words inoffensive?  Should the […]

Hello Everyone, It’s been a very busy semester, but we have a few upcoming events organized by the Library that I wanted to highlight—they are not to be missed! Tuesday, April 14: Why Can’t I Download That Ebook? Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) and the Politics of Electronic Reading, led by Alycia Sellie This workshop will […]

1.  The author suggests a “road map” paragraph in the introduction of the paper.  The author then describes how the main body of the paper should develop and defend your argument.  So, should each paragraph be devoted to a single source that develops and defends that argument? 2.  The author tells us in the conclusion […]

1. Throughout Cha’s narrative, but especially on the story of Yu Guan Soon, what do you see as the connection between time and memory? 2. Similar to Zoe’s question on Cha’s usage of French, how does Cha use “language” as tool to illustrate notions of national belongingness, or “home”? (I’m thinking about Cha’s literal incorporation of […]

I hope you are enjoying Dictee… For those of you who would like a bit more support getting into the text, or getting the swing of it, here’s a great reading guide, by Professor Viet Nguyen of USC: http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~vnguyen/dictee/dictee1.htm Here are some blog posts from my previous class (“Approaches to Life Writing”) about Cha’s Dictee: https://lifewriting.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2013/11/07/more-than-words/ […]

Hi everybody. I’m posting the interview questions from last night’s session below.   Bringing the two sections together was, I think, really productive–and it was great to see the areas of overlap between their investigation of self-hood and our consideration of “oversharing.” We are going to continue to try to connect these two classes.  I would […]

25. I am late for a date as I write this! 24. But homework calls- go figure. 23. Why start with the Number One instead of going backwards? 22. The hard part of this is that Microsoft won’t automatically insert the numbers for me, I have to do this myself. I guess Microsoft feels the […]

Tomorrow, when we bring both classes together, you will be asked to sit with someone from Professor Tougaw’s section, someone you do not know. Professor Tougaw and I will interview each other. And then you will exchange a “25 random things” list from Viegener’s book with someone from the other class.  Think of it as […]

Looking forward to our shared conversation tomorrow, here is Professor Tougaw’s class blog: https://selfinventing.commons.gc.cuny.edu Please feel free to comment on and respond to posts on Viegener, Miller and Koestenbaum–and to post further on these texts on our site too.  It would be wonderful to see a bunch of comments flowing back and forth as we […]

Here are a few notes from what we covered for sharing, and I attached copies of the handouts too. · Here is the MALS guide we looked at (with databases to start with under the “Articles” tab): http://libguides.gc.cuny.edu/MALS o We looked at Academic Search Complete (widened to ALL of our EBSCO databases), Project Muse, and […]

Hi Everyone, We will be meeting in Room 6496 on 3/17/15 from 6:30p – 8:30p for our combined class with Professor Jason Tougaw…more information to follow during the day today!  Carrie

In Wayne Koestenbaum’s essay “Memoir in the Age of Buzzfeed” reviewing Matias Viegener’s 2500 Random Things about Me Too, Koestenbaum opens by saying his favorite books “teach me how to think, or how to stop thinking,” and Viegener’s book did both and was thoroughly provocative: On page 188, Viegener says that he wants to create […]

Hi, Miriyam here, in “But Enough About Me What do You Think About My Memoir?”, Nancy K. Miller, talks about memoirs, less about narcissism and more about memory and people’s need to be memorialized and remembered. She talks about a generation stricken with metaphorical Alzheimer’s. I found this idea interesting particularly, since at the beginning […]

The Snowden Files: A complicated political, social and ethical Issue. But was it an Overshare? I found the deliberating process of coming up with a final research topic difficult for this class. My goal was to link this project to the rest of my academic research, which is mainly international relations and China. Looking to […]

Also, I want to ask you an opinion about this fact that happened last week. I was looking for a video on Youtube and I found this video in which two twins guys came out to their dad. It is a very intimate moment, private and very moving. They posted on Youtube and the whole […]

Following up from the discussion about how the internet has changed the way we connect and ccommunicate, I found this discussion titled “Real Relationships in the Digital World?”, and thought it worth while to share. Below is the link to the debate from the NY times website. http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/03/05/real-relationships-in-a-digital-world?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region&region=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region Adam

As someone who labored through the first volume and a half of “My Struggle” by Karl Ove Knausgaard over the course of about six weeks this summer, I’m simultaneously thankful that this wasn’t included on our syllabus—so many pages!—and curious about the discussion we could have about this project and oversharing. For those who aren’t […]

Hi All, This is just a reminder that if your proposed research involves human subjects in any way, and that includes interviews etc., you will need to receive IRB clearance.  Here is the information: http://www.gc.cuny.edu/Prospective-Current-Students/Current-Students/Human-Subjects-IRB Take a close look before proceeding with your work.  Best, Carrie  

Hi all, I just finished reading I Love Dick, an astonishing memoir/novel/series of feminist essays by Chris Kraus. The story centers on Kraus’s obsession with an unattainable male figure at the periphery of her life. She describes her lengthy pursuit of him in cringe-worthy detail. Her husband ambivalently consents to the affair. Eventually she moves alone to upstate New York to sort […]

by: Shirley Franks’ Question: 1. Why do people feel the need to anonymously post things that don’t seem to be controversial or embarrassing? I did not consider any of the posts to be oversharing. My response: I found some of the posts to be very shocking. While I’m not sure if they fall under the […]

I was thinking about doing a paper about oversharing and generational gaps involving Soviet immigrants and their Americanized children. With the collapse of the Soviet Union there was a huge influx of soviet citizens in the 1980’s and 90’s. These immigrants escaped a country where “oversharing” even innocent details could lead to a prison sentence […]

Hi. My research interests are on questions of Asian American Studies and gender and sexuality. I have two paper topics that I’ve been thinking about, but don’t know how to approach and narrow down: 1. The build grison. The coming of age narrative is often considered the trope in Asian American literature. Maxine Hong Kingston’s […]

Hi Everyone, Miriyam here, awhile ago my sister told me about an app called whisper, also a website. Whisper is basically similar to PostSecret, and I think that it is also interesting to read. Here is a “secret” on whisper.   I do not consider these two sites Whisper/PostSecret to be over-sharing sites, I consider […]

Facebook and The Liberal Arts We have talked in class about the important role that the audience plays in oversharing. We have discussed that an overshare becomes so based on the particular audience the information is shared with. For example, sharing detailed information about a health issue with a doctor may not be considered oversharing, […]

I found PostSecret to be a fascinating picture blog.  Perusing the site generated three questions as I was scrolling down the posts. 1.  Why do people feel the need to anonymously post things that don’t seem to be controversial or embarrassing?  I did not consider any of the posts to be oversharing. 2.  Do the […]

Hi.  In light of the readings concerning Facebook and the split between offline and online selves, I think that it would be a good idea to suggest a book that may help us ‘theorize’ our understanding of how social networks work.  I included this book because it concerns itself more with theory than ‘application’ or other […]

(by Kathy Cacace) While it was only a tangent during last night’s class discussion on Virginia Woolf and the memoir club’s straddling of the public and private spheres, on the way home I really got to thinking about this idea of the performative intimacy on Facebook. Somebody (Sarah, I think? Sorry! Bad with names but […]

For those who didn’t take notes, here are photos of the chalkboard. -Sarah  

I think the fashion world can be a great example of what “oversharing” is. Especially in today’s world where the accessibility to certain types of realities just for the elite, is made possible only through social media. Though designer collections may vary in style, one thing is common to all runways; the inescapable presence of […]

I am interested in exploring how Sex and the City altered the way female relationships are portrayed on television and how this lead to an expanded market for televised storytelling from the female perspective. In order to focus my work, I want to compare Sex and the City to Orange is the New Black looking […]

Hello.  A paper topic I am interested in pertains to the deficit ancien regime France incurred before the French Revolution.  For instance, I know that the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763) between France and Great Britain is ultimately what caused the deficits.  After the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), Great Britain, for whatever reason, was able to pay back […]

(post by Kathy Cacace) It’s true that I work in medical publishing, but in the Venn diagram of my personal interests and my professional life, there is only one small overlap: how we talk about our bodies, particularly women’s bodies.  As I thought about this in relation to our class discussions and the theme of […]

“Thus to be a friend is to stand to another in a relationship of trust, for the sake of one’s friend; to be a writer is to stand ready to violate that trust for the sake of one’s story” (108). Do you agree with this statement? Is there a difference between writing one’s story and […]

  I would like to add a visual to the William Godwin reading. Mary Godwin was very unlucky in love. Her first “unrealized” love affair was with Henry Fuseli , whose paintings like “The Nightmare” were extremely gothic horror depictions. Was that what drew Mary to Fuseli?

My suggestion for a complementary reading to Godwin’s Memoirs is Godwin & Mary: Letters of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. Reading their letters to each other provides a nuanced view of their relationship. There are only 160 letters–most of them very short–that trace the trajectory of their relationship from courtship through pregnancy, marriage and up to […]

Having read Memoirs by William Godwin, the following questions resonated: 1. Described as a unique, strong willed and urgent person with many traits of genius, is Godwin’s writing about Mary Wollstonecraft not only the story of genius but how genius relates to non-conformity? 2. More in tune with the topic of the class, is Memoirs […]

Hello.  I just read William Godwin’s 1798 ‘Memoirs of the Author…’ piece.  I printed a copy of it off of the Project Gutenberg website; hopefully, there will be a match between all the different translations/editions of this work.  I just finished reading it and have generated 3 questions I had about the work.  They are: 1) […]

1. Much of our discussion in class touched on oversharing as it relates to the audience. Critics of Cleaving have suggested Powell has no audience in mind, and that the book is less a memoir and more one big overshare. Do you agree with this assessment? Why or why not? 2. Cleaving was published in 2009, […]