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/lp/duke-university-press/writing-the-lives-of-others-the-veterans-project-cZpoqVMfAU
- Copyright
- © 2003 Duke University Press
- ISSN
- 1531-4200
- eISSN
- 1533-6255
- DOI
- 10.1215/15314200-3-1-73
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
Writing the Lives of Others: The Veterans Project Sandra Young Amazon.com lists almost nineteen hundred biographies. Cable television offers A&E’s Biography, Lifetime’s Intimate Portrait, Bravo’s Profiles, and the Biog- raphy Channel. We love to watch and read stories about “real” people. Writing is one of the most powerful tools we have to preserve and understand the past and present. Yet writing biography or conducting oral his- toriography raises important philosophical and ethical questions. What is the line between truth and fiction? How much do we have the right to know? How much do we need to know? What privacy issues are at stake? What is the role of the imagination in written biographical scholarship? How can literary and dramatic strategies be used in writing about real human experiences? This essay describes an advanced composition course in which the students studied the ethics, politics, history, and rhetorical strategies involved in writing the lives of others. The heart of the course was a service-learning project that introduced college juniors and seniors to veterans of World War II and the Korean and Vietnam Wars. The students interviewed, wrote brief biographies, and transcribed the wartime stories of a group of veterans from a
Journal
Pedagogy – Duke University Press
Published: Jan 1, 2003