ENGLISH 190-1: Intermediate Fiction Writing (seminar) Taught by: Harriet Clark Fall Quarter, 2011-2012 TTh 1:15-3:05, Room: Educ36 |
English 190: Intermediate Fiction On Writing, Reading, and Subverting Expectations Instructor: Harriet Clark
“I believe the secret of writing is that fiction never exceeds the reach of the writer’s courage.” (Dorothy Allison)
“The writer is one who, embarking upon a task, does not know what to do.” (Donald Barthelme)
“Rules are made to be broken.” (Someone/everyone)
Let’s clarify that: rules are made to be learned, tried, modified, subverted, and then, on occasion, broken. Stories too are meant to be made and broken and re-made and re-broken. In this section of Intermediate Fiction Writing, we are going to expand on the conventions of craft and content you’ve learned thus far, this time with an eye towards how to subvert expectations—your readers’ and your own. We are going to develop our skill for writing scenes—scenes in which something necessary is defined or revealed or changed forever, scenes that are vivid and resonant, scenes that announce, this is a story—and then we are going to tear those scenes apart. We’ll explore how to frame scenes for different effect, how to place scenes, how to withhold scenes, how to avoid scene entirely. We’ll invite our stories to shift focus, shift scope; we’ll invite our characters to grow more mysterious and unpredictable and true. For inspiration we will read authors who aim to confound and unsettle and move their readers; discussions on these works will be student-led. Like English 90, which is a prerequisite for this course, English 190 is structured around the workshop process and community. You will each submit a short (2-5 page) and a longer (8-20 page) story to be workshopped and revised. In coming together to support and challenge each other, we will keep in mind what E.B. White had to say: “I admire anybody who has the guts to write anything at all.” This course fulfills the following Major Requirements:
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