FAB 2.49 Mondays

Aims and Objectives:

The main purpose is to introduce students to writing stories, poems, digital memoir, and essays. Rhetoric, form and genre will be among the topics discussed and practised. The module aims to develop a range of literary writing styles and approaches; and to read widely in contemporary world literature. Students will produce examples of work to meet specific challenges and deadlines.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the module the student should have:

• Acquired some knowledge and understanding of a range of examples of contemporary fiction, poetry and non-fiction.
• Received an introduction to some literatures in English and to the practice and imitation of those literatures.
• Acquired some knowledge of the power and practice of the imagination in literary creation.
• Acquired and introductory knowledge of useful and precise critical and practical terminology and, where appropriate, of linguistic and stylistic terminology.
• Acquired some awareness of the range and variety of approaches to the practice of writing.
  Improved skills in writing a critical commentary

Teaching Methods:

Weekly workshops. Warwick Thursday visiting writer events. Individual tutorials given by Writing Programme staff.

Structure of the module:

The module has four units: Fiction, Poetry, Beyond Books, and Essay. Each unit runs for 4 or 5 weeks and is taught by a different writer.

Students are also expected to attend all Warwick Thursday visiting writer events.

Reading is offered in links to PDF documents, the university library's online Talis system, and websites. You should also invest in a good dictionary and thesaurus.

Assessment:

This module is 100% assessed.100% assessed = 5 assignments [20% each]

You submit an assignment for each of the four units. These assignments each count for 20% of your final score. Details of the the 4 assignments are given in the module details below.

In addition to the four assessments for each individual unit, there is a final assessment of 2000 words. This submission requires your independent study and can take the form of an essay OR fiction OR creative piece (each 2000 words) OR the equivalent in poetry (10 pages). Please also write a commentary on your submitted creative work of 3 pages. There is no set formula for this submission. The choice of what you submit is up to you. You might even make a hybrid creative piece that showcases different genres.

Fiction (Dr Nell Stevens)

We’ll be reading essays focusing on their structural, stylistic and thematic elements. But the focus will be practical. We’ll come to understand the flexibility of the essay form in various exercises and in-class discussion, with the aim of producing work of intellectual value which manages to break some of the preconceived notions of the apparent stylistic rigidity of essays.

Jonathan Lethem, 'Elevator Pitches'Link opens in a new window

Guy de Maupassant, 'The Necklace' (1888)Link opens in a new window

Carmen Maria Machado, 'Horror Story'Link opens in a new window

Lucy Corin, 'Miracles'Link opens in a new window

Ingrid Persaud, 'The Sweet Sop'Link opens in a new window

Kristen Roupenian, 'Cat Person'Link opens in a new window

Hugh Behm-Steinberg, 'Taylor Swift'Link opens in a new window

Ed Park, 'The Wife on Ambien'Link opens in a new window

Assessment

Poems (Robert Gainer)

Derek Mahon, 'The Mayo Tao'

Anna Akhmatova, 'He Loved Three Things Alone'

Norman MacCaig, 'Frogs'

Norman MacCaig, 'Toad'

Jane Draycott, 'Prince Rupert's Drop'

Elizabeth Bishop, 'A Cold Spring'

Ian Duhig, 'From the Irish'

The Exeter Book of Riddles

Poem as Talk in Frank O'Hara 'The Day Lady Died'

Frank O Hara reads 'The Day Lady Died'

Voice and Spoken Word in Kate Tempest, Interview

'The Sound of Sense' in: Robert Frost, 'Birches'

Rachel Long, 'Red Hoover'

Jackie Kay, 'My Grandmother's Houses'

Mary Jean Chan, 'Fleche'

Kim Moore, 'In That Year'

Excerpt from Joe Brainard's 'I Remember'

Assessment

At the end of the unit, the student will submit 8 pages of poems. One poem on one page.

Digital Memoir (Prof Dragan Todorovic)

On Moodle

On Moodle

On Moodle

On Moodle

On Moodle

Assessment

8-minute digital memoir in the form of a video, an audio file, or a sound art piece.

Essay (Dr Gonzalo Ceron Garcia)

Susan Sontag, 'Regarding the Pain of OthersLink opens in a new window' (FIRST CHAPTER ONLY)

George Orwell, 'Why I Write' and 'Shooting an Elephant' (Reading on Moodle)

Virginia Woolf, 'The Death of The MothLink opens in a new window'

George Saunders, 'The Braindead Megaphone' (Reading on Moodle)

Assessment

Final Portfolio 

Assessment

In addition to the four assessments for each individual unit, there is a final assessment of 1500 words. This submission requires your independent study and can take the form of an essay OR fiction OR creative piece (each 1500 words) OR the equivalent in poetry (6 poems). Please also write a commentary on your submitted creative work of 500 words. There is no set formula for this submission. The choice of what you submit is up to you. You might even make a hybrid creative piece that showcases different genres.