Details

When:

Where: The Hampton Inn

Cost: $115.00 for 4 session(s)

Type: In Person

Category:

Instructor: is Professor Emerita in Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona.

Daily Details of Extraordinary Lives

The personal diary has been women’s welcoming confidante for centuries. We will explore the traditions, challenges, and innovations of this life-writing form. While the major diaries studied will be by women, men play a major part — as lovers, spouses, rivals, and irritants — in the journals women left behind.

Week 1: From Private to Public: History, Challenges and Issues
We’ll travel across centuries of diarists, from the wife of Samuel Pepys, the sisters of Wordsworth and James, to today’s social media users. What drives writers to confess their misdeeds in their diaries? How have private writers preserved the secrets in their books?

Week 2: “Ordinary” Women’s Diaries
From Overland trail diaries, to New Zealand missionary women’s journals, to the 30-year long diary of an Iowa farm woman, ordinary women have kept extraordinary life records. What motivated them to write? How have their records changed our understanding of history?

Week 3: Extraordinary Women’s Diaries
We’ll examine two outrageous British diarists, the complex diary-like writings of mining frontier femme fatale “Baby Doe” Tabor, the most famous diarist in modern times, Anne Frank – and the most infamous diarist, Anais Nin.

Week 4: What is the Fate of a Diary?
Prof. Temple will present insights and mysteries about her ongoing study of a 50-year long Irish immigrant’s diary. Who decides what to keep and whose diary matters? We’ll discuss issues of privacy, family diaries, preservation of journals.

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Register for Dear Diary

Online registration has been closed for this class. Please call (520) 777-5817 for information.