CW912-45 Nonfiction Writing Workshop
Introductory description
Memoir, personal essay, travel and adventure writing, nature writing, ‘literary journalism,’ and investigative journalism. Creative nonfiction is a vague and unfortunate term, of course, and the entire field is a mess, but that’s what makes it fun.
Module aims
We’ll consider memoir in relation to fiction and confession, with a brief look back to Augustine. For personal essay, we’ll start with Aristotle and the critical essay, then discuss Seneca, Montaigne, and Swift before jumping into our own time. We’ll consider travel and adventure writing in relation to each other and to memoir, and nature writing in relation to the British Romantics and American Transcendentalists. We’ll also consider a few examples of ‘literary journalism,’ such as The Perfect Storm and River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, and also several investigative pieces (on ocean acidification and sugar). We’ll look at possibilities and limitations in each genre, and these discussions will carry over into the workshop as we consider the work that students submit to be workshopped. Workshops will focus on the discussion of language and craft in detail, including structure and strategies for revision.
Outline syllabus
This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.
MEMOIR (AND NOVEL)
1 St. Augustine, Confessions (online link)
Tobias Wolff, This Boy’s Life (pp 3-8), In Pharaoh’s Army (pp 171-181)
Annie Proulx, The Shipping News (pp 1-11)
2 Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping (pp 7-13)
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior (pp 3-22)
Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes (pp 11-19)
PERSONAL ESSAY (AND INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM)
3 Begin workshop of student work (2 or 3 manuscripts per week)
Aristotle, “The Kinds of Friendship” (online link)
Seneca, “On Noise” (pp. 3-8)
Michel De Montaigne, “On affectionate relationships,” “On sleep,” (pp 205-210, 303-305),
introductory note (online link), “Of books” (online link), “Of thumbs” (online link)
Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal” (online link)
4 James Baldwin, “Notes of a Native Son” (pp 85-114)
Zora Neale Hurston, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” (online link)
Jamaica Kincaid, “On Seeing England for the First Time” (pp. 333-344)
5 Ann Hodgman, “No Wonder They Call Me a Bitch” (pp. 157-162)
Philip Weiss, “How To Get Out of a Locked Trunk” (pp. 150-156)
6 Elizabeth Kolbert, “The Darkening Sea”
Gary Taubes, “Is Sugar Toxic?”
TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE WRITING (AND ‘LITERARY JOURNALISM’)
7 Intro to Travel Writing by Jamaica Kincaid (Best American TW 2005)
Frances Mayes, Under The Tuscan Sun (pp 1-25)
Peter Mayle, A Year in Provence (pp 3-25)
8 Peter Hessler, River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (author’s note & pp 3-32)
Kira Salak, “The Vision Seekers”
Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm (pp XI-11 and 136-146)
NATURE WRITING
9 William Blake, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” (online link)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Nightingale,” “Dejection: An Ode” (online links)
Henry David Thoreau, “Solitude” (online link)
10 Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (pp 3-33) Gretel Ehrlich, “The Solace of Open Spaces” (pp 467-476) and “The Source of a River” (pp 208-211) Pam Houston, “A Blizzard under Blue Sky” (pp 37-43)
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students should be able to:
- Engagement with the nature of nonfiction as a genre, its possibilities and limitations
- Students will write their own nonfiction piece, informed by the workshop readings and discussions
Indicative reading list
Aristotle, “The Kinds of Friendship”
Baldwin, James “Notes of a Native Son”
Blake, William, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, “The Nightingale,” “Dejection: An Ode”
Dillard, Annie, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Ehrlich, Gretel, “The Solace of Open Spaces” and “The Source of a River”
Hessler, Peter, River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze
Hodgman, Ann, “No Wonder They Call Me a Bitch”
Houston, Pam, “A Blizzard under Blue Sky”
Hurston, Zora Neale, “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”
Junger, Sebastian, The Perfect Storm
Kincaid, Jamaica“On Seeing England for the First Time”
Kingston, Maxine Hong, The Woman Warrior
Kinkaid, Jamaica, Intro to Travel Writing
Kolbert, Elizabeth, “The Darkening Sea”
Mayes, Frances, Under The Tuscan Sun
Mayle, Peter, A Year in Provence
McCourt, Frank Angela’s Ashes
Montaigne, “On affectionate relationships,” “On sleep,” “Of books”, “Of thumbs”
Proulx, Annie, The Shipping News
Robinson, Marilynne, Housekeeping
Salak, Kira, “The Vision Seekers”
Seneca, “On Noise”
St. Augustine, Confessions
Swift, Jonathan, “A Modest Proposal”
Taubes, Gary, “Is Sugar Toxic?”
Thoreau, Henry Taylor, “Solitude”
Weiss, Phillip, “How To Get Out of a Locked Trunk”
Wolff, Tobias, This Boy’s Life, In Pharaoh’s Army
Secondary Reading
The Corrosion of Character, by Richard Sennett
Into the Silent Land, by Paul Broks
Stuart: A Life Backwards, by Alexander Masters
Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, by Suketu Mehta
Istanbul: Memories of a City, by Orhan Pamuk
We Are Iran, by Nasrin Alavi
Lost in Translation, by Eva Hoffman
Like a Fiery Elephant: The Story of B.S. Johnson, by Jonathan Coe
Selling Olga: Stories of Human Trafficking and Resistance by Louisa Waugh Murder in Amsterdam: The Death of Theo van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance, by Ian Buruma Soldiers of Salamis, by Javier Cercas What is the What, by Dave Eggers Yoga for People Who Can’t Be Bothered to Do It, by Geoff Dyer
Research element
unspecified
Subject specific skills
n/a
Transferable skills
n/a
Study time
| Type | Required |
|---|---|
| Seminars | 10 sessions of 3 hours (7%) |
| Private study | 420 hours (93%) |
| Total | 450 hours |
Private study description
Students will develop a 10,000-word portfolio, containing a non-fiction piece and accompanying critical reflection.
Costs
No further costs have been identified for this module.
You must pass all assessment components to pass the module.
Assessment group A
| Weighting | Study time | Eligible for self-certification | |
|---|---|---|---|
Assessment component |
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| 7500 word Creative Portfolio & 2500 word Critical Essay | 100% | 450 hours | Yes (extension) |
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7500-word Creative Portfolio and 2500-word Critical Essay |
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Reassessment component is the same |
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Feedback on assessment
Written feedback on Tabula. Discussions on drafts in class.
There is currently no information about the courses for which this module is core or optional.