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CS92PROD
Topics in Journalism: Literary Journalism


WRCT 250J
Fall 2019 not offered
Crosslisting: CSPL 250J
Certificates: Writing
Course Cluster: Writing Certificate

In this course, we will explore the art and craft of magazine-length journalism that strives to do something different than reporting the news--it aspires to achieve the goals of literature. While this kind of writing tends to be timely, as almost all journalism must be when it's first published, at its best, it ought to be worth reading for decades to come. Truman Capote, for example, conceived of IN COLD BLOOD, which he first published as a series of articles in THE NEW YORKER in 1965, as a "non-fiction novel": a work of journalism that employed the techniques and artistry of fiction. We will study the writing of new journalists such as Joan Didion, Tom Wolfe, Nora Ephron, and Gay Talese, who pioneered the idea that there is no such thing as unbiased reporting: The writer can't help but bring a point of view to his or her storytelling, so why not admit it? These writers broke with journalistic convention and admitted that there was an "I" behind the typewriter, a mediator between the "true" story and the reader. We will focus on reading and writing two forms in particular, the profile and the essay. While an excellent profile can be a straightforward examination of another person and his or her place in the world, in the hands of a master like Janet Malcolm or George Trow, it can become an eruption of invention. Essays ask a question or argue a point--but how? There are as many ways as there are writers who explore the form, and in this course we will seek to join them. The course will be taught by Steve Almond, the 2016--17 Koeppel Journalism Fellow. He has been an investigative journalist in Miami and El Paso and is an award-winning writer of nonfiction and fiction. He is the author of eight books, including several New York Times bestsellers, and is currently teaching narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation at Harvard.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA WRCT
Course Format: SeminarGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: None

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
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