English 235 - Winter, 2016

Theory of Fiction

Class Information

Instructor: Corin, Lucy
Time: F 11:00-1:50
Location: 120 Voorhies

Description

I approach the Theory of Fiction with the particular concerns of fiction writers at the core. The course will incorporate creative interactions with the formal analysis of aesthetically diverse fictions. Along with the two (gently and very differently) metafictional novels listed below, we'll read articles about writing: craft articles, "current issues in writing" type articles, and various meditations on the art of fiction. The goal is to get you noticing the implications of the way you write, imagining and playing with ways of writing that are new, foreign, or even troubling to you, and becoming aware of your own evolving poetics. Part of each class will be dedicated to seminar-style discussion and analysis of the readings and part will be dedicated to “playpen”—you doing things with words in ways that dramatize or embody what we’re thinking through. This year it also looks like we’ll be able to do a collaborative project with graduate students in the Art Department. Some of the authors in the Articles reader = Susan Sontag, Prageeta Sharma, Eileen Myles, Roland Barthes, Henry James, Ralph Ellison, Maggie Nelson. Some of the authors in the Stories reader= Lispector, Barthelme, L. Davis, O. Butler, Carver, Coover, Cheever, R. Banks, Wharton, D. Alarcon

Texts

The Rhetoric of Fiction , Wayne Booth
Mastery and Manners, Flannery O'Connor
Maison Femme, Teresa Carmody
The Deep Zoo, Rikki Ducornet
The Curfew, Jesse Ball
My Brilliant Friend, Book One, Elena Ferrante
Course Reader of Short Stories, smartsite
Course Reader of Articles, smartsite