Place, Character, and Design: Techniques in Writing Nonfiction and Fiction
ENGL 290
Spring 2020
| Section:
01
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| Certificates: Writing |
| Course Cluster: Writing Certificate |
We begin this writing course with questions central to the students' own work in both nonfiction and fiction: how to establish characters and a narrator's voice and how to frame the spatial and emotional world of the piece. The course encourages writers to explore questions of design and structure while focusing also on style and technique at the sentence level.
Readings include works by writers interested in these questions, including, in fiction, Andre Aciman, Vladimir Nabokov, Henry James, Robert Stone, Deborah Eisenberg, and Edward P. Jones, and, in nonfiction, Brian Doyle, Junichiro Tanizaki, Joan Didion, Charles Bowden, Mark Doty, Linh Dinh, Dubravka Ugresic, and George Orwell. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL |
| Course Format: Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (ENGL)(ENGL-Creative W)(ENGL-Literature) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Selections from collections of Best American Essays, Best American Short Stories, Best Travel Writing, and
The Art of the Personal Essay, as well as pieces by a broad mix of writers including Chekhov, Annie Dillard, and Virginia Woolf, and Vivian Gornick.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Short exercises and revision, leading to a longer project. There are several short fiction assignments, but the main focus is on nonfiction: memoir forms, narrative or personal essay, short profile, character sketch, braided essays, travel pieces. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
For the Writing Certificate this course may be counted as a craft course or as an elective. It has a workshop component. |
| Instructor(s): Greene,Anne F. Times: .M.W... 08:20AM-09:40AM; Location: DWNY113; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 16 | | SR major: 3 | JR major: 5 | | |
| Seats Available: -2 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 1 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 5 | FR: 0 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 7 | 1st Ranked: 3 | 2nd Ranked: 1 | 3rd Ranked: 1 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 2 |
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