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CW918 Writing Wrongs Workshop

Convenor: Professor Maureen Freely
Term 2

The Writing Wrongs Workshop is designed for students who have taken CW911 Writing about Human Rights and Injustice and wish to pursue a longer, more ambitious project in this vein. In accordance with WWP writing workshop precepts, the module will be led by an expert in the field. Students will submit work for class discussion on a rota basis, with weekly readings and tailored mini-lectures serving to keep the larger issues raised by that work in historical, political and cultural context.

Full details TBC. What follows is an indicative plan:

Week 1: Introduction

Week 2: Writing truth

Javier Cercas, The Imposter (extracts: pp13-42 and 167-174)

Jenny Diski, Skating to Antarctica (pp1-38 and 85-103)

Week 3: Writing difference

Naoki Higashida, The Reason I Jump

Steve Silberman, Neurotribes

Stephen Kuusisto, Planet of the Blind

Week 4: Writing the suffering of others and oneself

Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking

Emmanuel Carrere, Lives Other Than My Own

Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Wrestling with the Devil 

Sonali Deraniyagala, The Wave

Week 5: Writing people

Oscar Lewis, Pedro Martinez

WG Sebold, The Emigrants

Salena Godden, ‘Shade’ in Nikesh Shukla (ed), The Good Immigrant

Week 6: TBC

Week 7: Writing war

Martha Gelhorn, The Face of War

Helen Parr, Our Boys: the Story of a Paratrooper

Week 8: Writing for change

Arundhati Roy, The Algebra of Infinite Justice

Elizabeth Pisani, The Wisdom of Whores

Gary Younge, The Speech

Week 9: Writing the Future

Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction

Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable

Week 10 Final workshop; Overview

Indicative Reading List – to accompany mini lectures

Javier Cercas, The Imposter (extracts: pp13-42 and 167-174)

Jenny Diski, Skating to Antarctica (pp1-38 and 85-103)

Benjamin Zephaniah, My Life and Rhymes

Naoki Higashida, The Reason I Jump

Steve Silberman, Neuotribes

Stephen Kuusisto, Planet of the Blind

Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Famiily

Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking

Emmanuel Carrere, Lives Other Than My Own

Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Wrestling with the Devil 

Sonali Deraniyagala, The Wave

Hisham Matar, The Return

Martha Gelhorn, The Face of War

Helen Parr, Our Boys: the Story of a Paratrooper

Arundhati Roy, The Algebra of Infinite Justice

Elizabeth Pisani, The Wisdom of Whores

Gary Younge, The Speech

Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sixth Extinction

Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable

Assessment

For the MA in Writing: 8000 words of creative work (80%) with a 1000-word commentary on the aims and processes involved (20%)(45 CATS).

For the MA in English Literature: 5000 words of creative work (80%) and a 1000-word commentary on the aims and processes involved (20%) (30 CATS).

For the LLM in International Development Law and Human Rights and LLM in Advanced Legal Studies: 3200 words of creative work (80%) and an 800-word commentary (20%) on the aims and processes involved (20 CATS).