G. Thomas Couser's Books

Memoir

An Introduction

By: G. Thomas Couser

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Memoir

An Introduction

By: G. Thomas Couser

A compact, pithy guide to the most popular form of life-writing, Memoir: An Introduction provides a primer to the ubiquitous literary form and its many subgenres.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

215

Publisher

OUP USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199826900

ISBN 13

9780199826902

Recovering Bodies

Illness, Disability, and Life Writing

By: G. Thomas Couser

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Recovering Bodies

Illness, Disability, and Life Writing

By: G. Thomas Couser

This is a provocative look at writing by and about people with illness or disability—in particular HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, deafness, and paralysis—who challenge the stigmas attached to their conditions by telling their lives in their own ways and on their own terms. Discussing memoirs, diaries, collaborative narratives, photo documentaries, essays, and other forms of life writing, G. Thomas Couser shows that these books are not primarily records of medical conditions; they are a means for individuals to recover their bodies (or those of loved ones) from marginalization and impersonal medical discourse. Responding to the recent growth of illness and disability narratives in the United States—such works as Juliet Wittman’s Breast Cancer Journal, John Hockenberry’s Moving Violations, Paul Monette’s Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir, and Lou Ann Walker’s A Loss for Words: The Story of Deafness in a Family—Couser addresses questions of both poetics and politics. He examines why and under what circumstances individuals choose to write about illness or disability; what role plot plays in such narratives; how and whether closure is achieved; who assumes the prerogative of narration; which conditions are most often represented; and which literary conventions lend themselves to representing particular conditions. By tracing the development of new subgenres of personal narrative in our time, this book explores how explicit consideration of illness and disability has enriched the repertoire of life writing. In addition, Couser’s discussion of medical discourse joins the current debate about whether the biomedical model is entirely conducive to humane care for ill and disabled people. With its sympathetic critique of the testimony of those most affected by these conditions, Recovering Bodies contributes to an understanding of the relations among bodily dysfunction, cultural conventions, and identity in contemporary America.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

336

Publisher

Univ of Wisconsin Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0299155633

ISBN 13

9780299155636

Signifying Bodies

Disability in Contemporary Life Writing

By: G. Thomas Couser

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Signifying Bodies

Disability in Contemporary Life Writing

By: G. Thomas Couser

Sheds new light on the memoir boom by asking: Is the genre basically about disability?

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

218

Publisher

University of Michigan Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0472050699

ISBN 13

9780472050697

Vulnerable Subjects

Ethics and Life Writing

By: G. Thomas Couser

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Vulnerable Subjects

Ethics and Life Writing

By: G. Thomas Couser

My primary concern is with the ethics of representing vulnerable subjects—persons who are liable to exposure by someone with whom they are involved in an intimate or trust-based relationship, unable to represent themselves in writing, or unable to offer meaningful consent to their representation by someone else.... Of primary importance is intimate life writing—that done within families or couples, close relationships, or quasi-professional relationships that involve trust—rather than conventional biography, which can be written by a stranger. The closer the relationship between writer and subject, the greater the vulnerability or dependency of the subject, the higher the ethical stakes, and the more urgent the need for ethical scrutiny."—from the Preface Vulnerable Subjects explores a range of life-writing scenarios-from the "celebrity" to the "ethnographic"—and a number of life-writing genres from parental memoir to literary case studies by Oliver Sacks. G. Thomas Couser addresses complex contemporary issues; he investigates the role of disability in narratives of euthanasia and explores the implications of the Human Genome Project for life-writing practices in any age when many regard DNA as a code that "scripts" lives and shapes identity. Throughout, his book is concerned with the ethical implications of the political and economic, as well as the mimetic, aspects of life writing.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

255

Publisher

Cornell University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1501723553

ISBN 13

9781501723551

Letter to My Father

A Memoir

By: G. Thomas Couser

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Letter to My Father

A Memoir

By: G. Thomas Couser

Having wounded his father with a devastating letter when he was twenty-three and felt somewhat responsible for his subsequent mental collapse, the author reexamines his father's life using documents found after his death to reflect on their relationship and reach a reconciliation with a man he had not really known.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

222

Published Date

ISBN 10

0761869581

ISBN 13

9780761869580

Book's by G. Thomas Couser

Memoir

Memoir

Recovering Bodies

Recovering Bodies

Signifying Bodies

Signifying Bodies

Vulnerable Subjects

Vulnerable Subjects

Letter to My Father

Letter to My Father

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email