Critical Reading and Writing Courses

Critical Reading and Writing I 55-1200-01 (undergrads only) Wednesday, 1:30-5:20 or Friday, 9:00-12:50 - 4 credits - This course develops the writer's approach to reading, and to writing about literature being read, as an integral, dynamic part of the writer's process, development, and career. Journals and other writings by such authors as D. H. Lawrence, Richard Wright, and Virginia Woolf are used as examples of how writers read, and write about what they read, in order to develop dimensions of their own fiction. Manuscripts and notes of famous works, wherever possible, are used to show writers' processes and development. Students select writers as the subjects of their research and writing. This is a particularly good introduction to the Critical Reading and Writing area. Instructors: writers Marcia Brenner (Wednesday) or Jotham Burrello (Friday). Prerequisite or concurrent enrollment: Introduction to Fiction Writing or Fiction Writing I.

Critical Reading and Writing: American Voices – 55-4211-01 (undergrads) or 55-5211-01 (grads) Thursday, 9:00-12:50 4 credits undergrads; 3 credits grads - This is a course researching the writing processes of African American, Hispanic American, Native American, Asian American, and other ethnic American writers and the ways in which their reading and responses to reading have played influential roles in their fiction writing processes. Particular emphasis will be placed upon taking the point of view of racial and ethnic opposites. Journals and other writings will be used as examples of how writers read (and write about what they read) to develop dimensions of their own fiction and to see their work in relation to that of other writers. Prerequisite or concurrent enrollment: Fiction Writing I. 55-1101 or 55-4101 (undergrads) & 55-5101 (grads) Instructor: writer Lila Jokanovic.

Critical Reading and Writing: Fiction Writers and Censorship - 55-4203-01 (undergrads) or 55-5203-01 (grads) Thursday, 6:00-9:50 - 4 credits undergrads, 3 credits grads - In this course, students read the fiction of successful authors who have been forced to confront one or more forms of censorship and marginalization. Students will respond to these works as writers in journal entries, research and discuss the writers' creative process in writing the novel, give an oral report on an author of choice, and write an essay. In addition, students undertake creative writing assignments that will encourage them to reflect upon the social context in which writers work and that will help them examine their own processes of writing. Instructor: writer Elizabeth Yokas. Prerequisite or concurrent enrollment: Fiction Writing I.

Critical Reading and Writing: Women Writers - 55-4215-01 (undergrads) & 55-5215-01 (grads) Tuesday, 1:30-5:20 - 4 credits undergrads, 3 credits grads - This is a course researching the writing processes of women writers, including the ways in which women writers' reading and responses to reading play an influential role in the overall fiction writing process. Journals and other writings by Zora Neale Hurston, Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf, and others will be used as examples of how writers read (and write about what they read) to develop dimensions of their own fiction and to see their work in relation to that of other writers. Prerequisite or concurrent enrollment: Fiction Writing I. Instructor: writer Betty Shiflett.

Critical Reading and Writing: Drama and Story 55-4204-01 (undergrads) or 55-5204-01 (grads) Tuesday, 6:00-9:50 4 credits undergrads, 3 credits grads - Students will read plays as well as stories by successful authors who have explored dramatic techniques helpful to the development of fiction. Students will respond to these works as writers in journal entries, research and discuss the writers' creative process, give an oral report on an author of choice, and write an essay. In addition, students will undertake creative writing assignments that will encourage them to incorporate dramatic techniques under study into their own fiction. Instructor: playwright Kristine Thatcher. Prerequisite or concurrent enrollment: Fiction Writing I.

Critical Reading and Writing: Contemporary European Masterpiece Authors 55-4208-01 (undergrads) or 55-5208-01 (grads) Thursday, 6:00-9:50 - 4 credits undergrads, 3 credits grads - This course researches the writing processes of contemporary European writers, including the ways in which writers' reading and responses to reading play influential roles in the overall fiction writing process. Journals and other writings will be used as examples of how writers develop dimensions of their own fiction and see their work in relation to other writers. The course involves study of the development of diverse techniques and voices of some of the most prominent contemporary European authors, the so-called “postwar” generation, in such countries as Germany, France, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Spain, Poland, Scandinavia, and Russia. Instructor: Russian writer Mark Davidov. Prerequisite or concurrent enrollment: Fiction Writing I.

Critical Reading and Writing: 19th Century Russian Authors 55-4207-01 (undergrads) & 55-5207-01 (grads) Wednesday, 1:30-5:20 - 4 credit undergrads, 3 credit grads - Students research the reading and writing processes behind selected novels and short stories by Russian masterpiece authors, and give their own oral and written responses as writers to the material they are reading. Research examines the personal and social contexts in which masterpiece works were written, as well as the ways in which writers read, respond to what they read, and incorporate their reading and responses to reading dynamically to their own fiction writing processes. Drawing upon authors' journals, notebooks, and letters, as well as upon more “public” writing and interviews, students explore the writing processes of Russian masterpiece authors and the ways in which students' own responses may nourish and heighten the development of their fiction. Prerequisite or concurrent enrollment: Fiction Writing I. Instructor: Russian writer Mark Davidov.

Critical Reading and Writing: Short Story Authors 55-4216-01 (undergrads) & 55-5216-01 (grads) Wednesday, 9:00-12:50 - 4 credits undergrads, 3 credits grads - This course encourages development of lively, well-crafted short fiction by examining the reading and writing processes behind some of the best examples of the form. Working individually and in small groups, students select from a wide range of writers, representing many different voices, backgrounds, subjects, and approaches, to research the ways in which writers read, respond to their reading, and use that reading to generate and heighten their short stories. Students write their own responses to reading and discuss the relationship of reading to development of their own fiction. Instructor: writer Megan Stielstra. Prerequisite or concurrent enrollment: Fiction Writing I.

Critical Reading and Writing: Novelists 55-4217-01 (undergrads) or 55-5217-01 (grads) Monday, 1:30-5:20 - 4 credits undergrads, 3 credits grads - This course examines the ways in which novelists read, respond to what they read, and incorporate their reading dynamically into their own fiction writing processes. In addition to their own written responses to reading, students work individually and in small groups researching the reading and writing processes behind selected novels (mainstream and non-mainstream), ranging from the beginnings of the form to the present day. Drawing upon authors' journals, notebooks, and letters as well as upon more “public” writings, students explore the connection between these processes and the ways in which their own responses to reading may nourish and heighten the development of their fiction. The course will survey many of the principal novelists and novels and the development of the genre from its roots to contemporary fiction. Students should be writing fiction, but novel-length material is not required. Instructor: writer Andy Allegretti.. Prerequisite or concurrent enrollment: Fiction Writing I.

Critical Reading and Writing: American Latino Writers – 55-4219-01 (undergrads) & 55-5219-01 (grads) Monday, 6:00 p.m.-9:50 p.m. 4 credits undergrads, 3 credits grads, - This course is a research, writing, and discussion workshop devoted to examining the development of story ideas by selected American Latino writers, including these writers responses to reading, stages of manuscript development, approaches to rewriting, dealings with editors and publishers, and other aspects of the fiction writer's process. Throughout the course, students read private writings (journals, notebooks, letters) as well as more “public” statements by published writers such as Julia Alvarez, Isabel Allende, Junot Diaz, and Rudolfo Anaya, with an eye toward their own reading and writing processes. In particular, students reflect upon the way in which the writer's often very personal response to texts differs from that of the traditional literary critic's approach of focusing on the end product. Prerequisite or concurrent enrollment: Fiction Writing I 55-2202 or 55-4101 (undergrad) & 55-5101 or 55-6101 (grad). Instructor: writer Germania Solorzano.

Critical Reading and Writing: Irish Writers 55-4218-01 (undergrads) & 55-5218-01 (grads) Tuesday, 9:00-12:50 – 4 credits undergrads, 3 credits grads - Students research reading and writing processes behind selected novels and short stories by principal masterpiece authors of Ireland from 1900 to the present, such as James Joyce, Brendan Behan, and Edna O'Brien. Drawing upon authors' journals, notebooks, and letters, as well as upon more public writing and interviews, students examine personal and social contexts in which writers wrote and respond to what they read. Students give oral and written responses as writers to the material. Prerequisite or concurrent enrollment: Fiction Writing I. Instructor: Irish author Antonia Logue.

Critical Reading and Writing: Fiction Writers as Creative Nonfiction Writers 55-4213-01 (undergrads) & 55-5213-01 (grads) - Thursday, 1:30-5:20 - 4 credits undergrads, 3 credits grads - Explores the ways in which published writers bring their knowledge of fiction writing techniques such as dramatic scene, image, voice, story movement, and point of view to the writing of creative nonfiction. Using primarily journals, letters, and other private writings, students will research the writing processes of established fiction writers who have worked extensively in creative nonfiction modes—writers as diverse as Mark Twain, Isak Dinesen, Virginia Woolf, Zora Neale Hurston, John Edgar Wideman, Gretel Ehrlich, James Alan McPherson, Scott Russell Sanders, Alice Walker, Joyce Carol Oates, David Bradley, and others. In addition to offering insights about widening writing options in a growing nonfiction market for fiction writers, this course will aid in the development of oral, written, and research skills useful for any major and any communications-related career. Prerequisite or concurrent enrollment: Fiction Writing I.

Critical Reading and Writing: First Novels – 55-4202-01 (undergrads) & 55-5202-01 (grads) Wednesday, 6:00-9:50 - 4 credits undergrads, 3 credits grads - This course will expose student writers to the creative and intellectual processes of published writers early in their careers. It will show students a) that writing is an ongoing process of writing and rewriting; b) that the creative process is both unique and universal to each writer; and c) that published writers face the same bogeys at the beginning of their careers that student writers face. Students will be required to read three or four novels, respond to them as writers in journal assignments, and conduct further research on writers' process by reading writers' diaries, notebooks, letters, and autobiographies. In addition, students will choose a first novel, conduct thorough research on the author's process of writing that work, give an oral presentation to the class, and write a subsequent creative nonfiction essay. Prerequisite or concurrent enrollment: Fiction Writing I. Instructor: writer Eric May.