First-Year Seminar (FYS): Place, Character, and Design: Techniques in Writing Nonfiction and Fiction
ENGL 190
Fall 2017
| Section:
01
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| Certificates: Writing |
We begin this writing course with questions central to students' 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 students to explore questions of design and structure while focusing also on style and technique at the sentence level. This creative writing course explores features of narrative and design that are central to work in fiction and creative nonfiction. We will also compare the design of college papers, written for academic courses, with pieces written for general readers. 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: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 | | Special Attributes: FYS |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Readings include pieces from Best American Essays, O. Henry Prize Stories, Best American Science Writing, Best Food Writing. and 20 Under 40: Stories from the New Yorker. Also pieces by Joan Didion, George Orwell, Rivka Galchen, William Finnegan, Alice Munro, Chimamanda Adichie, Elena Ferrante, and others.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Short exercises and a longer project, with an emphasis on narrative and observation in nonfiction. The choice of assignments will include a short profile or character sketch, personal essay, family history, explanatory piece, or interview-based article. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
For the Writing Certificate this course counts as a craft course with a workshop component. |
| Instructor(s): Greene,Anne F. Times: .M.W... 08:20AM-09:40AM; Location: DWNY100; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: X | JR major: X | | |
| Seats Available: 0 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: X | JR non-major: X | SO: X | FR: 15 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 1 | 1st Ranked: 1 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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