For my final project, I’d like to write about my own experience of recovery from an eating disorder. I will write mostly in free verse. I am inspired by the Adrienne Rich poem “Diving Into the Wreck” and am using that poem’s idea of diving into one’s self/past and seeing what one discovers there as a “jumping off point” for my own poems. I will structure my project in three sections, organized in terms of before, during, and “after” recovery. I am deeply interested in the genre of confessional poetry and, to inspire my own writing, I will read confessional poets such as Sylvia Plath, John Berryman and Anne Sexton. For my project, I will also do more research into the topic of eating disorder recovery and read memoirs from other writers (For example, “Going Hungry: Writers on Desire, Self-Denial and Overcoming Anorexia”) as well as academic articles on the subject more broadly (For example: “Critical Feminist Approaches to Eating Dis/Orders”). I am not sure yet how these works will inform my own project but I am toying with the idea of interweaving the experiences of other people into my own poems. I might also perhaps conduct interviews with other friends I have that have recovered from eating disorders and incorporate their stories into my poems. I would love any comments, ideas, recommendations etc from the class!
Margaret, I think this is a really interesting project - both in terms of content and the way you plan to work through and organize it. I'm wondering how your poems would look if you mix up theory about eating disorders/ factoids/ academic research with people's experiences. Maybe it might even create a dialogue between medical explanations of eating disorders and your/ others' lived experiences!
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