Composition and Creative Writing
Aims and Objectives: |
This module encourages you to consider the question of narrative in all its forms. |
Learning Outcomes: |
You will become more aware of the processes involved in writing narrative fiction and non-fiction, including traditional and experimental methods, revision, drafting, editing and considerations of audience. You will also gain critical insights into works of contemporary and classic literature and the traditional and modern processes of literary production |
Teaching Methods: |
The course is taught in workshop-style seminars. Students will remain within the same group throughout the course of an academic year. |
Assessment: |
The course is assessed by 2 written assessments. Assessment : Term 2: a portfolio of 5,000 words. This will comprise 2 parts, consisting of 2,500 words each. Part 1 will be a work of fiction, Part 2 will be a work of non-fiction. Guidelines and suggestions for the assessed work will provided during the term. Assessment 2: Term 3: a portfolio of 5,000 words. This will comprise 2 parts, consisting of 2,500 words each. Part 1 will be a work of fiction, or fictions. Part 2 will be a work of non-fiction. Guidelines and suggestions for the assessed work will provided during the term. |
Term One |
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Fiction and non-fiction (weeks 1-5)Dr. Gonzalo C. GarciaIn the first three weeks of Composition we will focus on fiction, paying particular attention to movement and placement as a guiding narrative principle: where do our characters begin and where do they end up? As we pivot to non-fiction, we'll spend week three considering what role authenticity and "reality" play in both forms. In weeks four and five, we'll look at non-fiction, thinking through the generative possibilities of indirectness, fragmentation and uncertainty. Weeks seven through ten are reserved for workshops. I will make all reading available via links or downloads on Moodle, but you might like to get your own copies of Ali Smith's Hotel World, Jhumpa Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth, David Shields' Reality Hunger and Maggie Nelson's Bluets. |
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| Week Number: | Session Title | Reading | |
| Week 1 | Fiction: Narrative Structure 101 |
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| Week 2 |
Fiction: Characterisation and voice |
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| Week 3 | Fiction : Objective Imagery/Abstract Sentences |
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| Week 4 | Non-fiction: Memoir and Autobiography |
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| Week 5 | Non-fiction: The Weight of Truth and Narrative Structures |
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Workshops (weeks 7-10)You will be asked to submit work the week prior to your workshop slot. You'll be given a workshop slot early in the term. It is very important that you submit on time so that everyone gets to read and edit your work with care. Submission guidelines will be provided at the start of term. |
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Term Two |
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Fiction (weeks 1-3) and Non-fiction (weeks 4-5)J. G. LynasOur first three weeks will be focused on short fiction, as well as a couple of novellas. We'll be examining how to build believable people, objects, and places, how the lessons of genre fiction can be attributed to all fiction, and how to carry thematic elements through to their natural conclusion. After this, we'll spend two weeks on non-fiction, exploring the practice of writing trauma and anger, how to manage distance and ownership, and some more experimental forms of non-fiction which blur many of the boundaries we might think solid. I would recommend reading Dept. of Speculation and Grief is the Thing With Feathers over the winter break, as they're a little longer (I would recommend reading them regardless, because they're brilliant). |
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| Week Number: | Session Title | Reading | |
| Week 1 | Furnishing a Story: Character and Scene |
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| Week 2 | Who's Afraid of Genre Fiction? |
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| Week 3 | Focus, Theme, and Crescendo |
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| Week 4 | Writing the Uncomfortable |
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| Week 5 | Between Fact and Fiction |
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Workshops (weeks 7-10)You will be asked to submit work the week prior to your workshop slot. You'll be given a workshop slot early in the term. It is very important that you submit on time so that everyone gets to read and edit your work with care. Submission guidelines will be provided at the start of term. |
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Further Reading: |
Raymond Carver, Cathedral. Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants. George Saunders, Pastoralia Sherman Alexie, ‘The Ballad of Paul Nonetheless’, ‘Salt’ and ‘Bird-Watching At Night’ in War Dances. Lorrie Moore, 'You're Ugly, Too' Tillie Olsen, 'I Stand Here Ironing' Virginia Woolf, 'A Haunted House' Alice Munro, 'Runaway' in Runaway. Cat Person, Kristin Roupenian The Husband Stitch, Tobias Wolff, Bullet in the Brain TC Boyle, ChicxulubNew Yorker podcast plus discussion with Lionel Shriver Axis, Alice Munro, available via The New Yorker podcast Paper Losses, Lorrie Moore Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson The Spot, by David Means Weather, Jenny Offill Lanny, Max Porter Mouthful of Birds, Samanta Schweblin You Should Come With Me Now, Climbers, M. John Harrison The Western Wind, Samantha Harvey Murmur, Will Eaves Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson Under the Skin, Michel Faber Forty Stories, Donald Barthelme The Fall, Albert Camus Rest and Be Thankful, Emma Glass Freshwater, Akwaeke Emezi Milkman, Anna Burns Annihilation, City of Saints and Madmen, Jeff VanderMeer The City and the City, China Miéville Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders The Death of Ivan Ilych, Leo Tolstoy Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson The Athenian Murders, José Carlos Samoza Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov Going to Meet the Man, James Baldwin Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Patrick Süskind Room, Emma Donoghue The Road, Cormac McCarthy Sightlines, Surfacing, Kathleen Jamie This is Not Propaganda, Pete Pomerantsev If This is a Man, Primo Levi Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping, Samantha Harvey Maus, Art Spiegelman Trick Mirror, Jia Tolentino The Descent of Man, Grayson Perry The Adversary: A True Story of Monstrous Deception, Emmanuel Carrère On Writing, Stephen King Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi On Pandering, Claire Vaye Watkins Notes of a Native Son, James Baldwin |