Interdisciplinary Arts 0236 - Practice of Literary Journalis

Literary Journalism encompasses a variety of genres, including portrait/biography, memoir, and investigation of the social landscape. Literary journalism uses such devices as plot, character, and spoken language to tell true stories about a variety of real worlds. By combining evocation with analysis, immersion with investigation, literary journalism tries to reproduce the complex surfaces and depths of people, places, and events. Books to be read will include: Fuller's DON'T LET'S GO TO THE DOGS TONIGHT, Filkins' THE FOREVER WAR, Sack's AWAKENINGS,and Wilkerson's THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS. Students will be asked to produce weekly, non-fiction narratives based on encounters with local scenes, situations and people. Mid-term and Final writing projects will based on the fieldwork and the short, non-fiction narratives that students will have produced, week after week. Fieldwork will demand initiative, patience, curiosity, empathy, and guts. The writing itself will have to be excellent. Core requirements are: (1) Meeting weekly deadlines and (2) Being scrupulously well-read and well-prepared for class.

Multiple Cultural Perspectives Independent Work In this course, students are expected to spend at least eight to twelve hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time. This time includes reading, writing, fieldwork, and research.