English 245 - WORLDBUILDING:LAND/CITYSCAPES

Whether in fantasy or more mainstream narratives, storylines evolve in a carefully constructed world space. Imaginary settings-whether they be Narnia or New York - involve the creation of spatially coherent locations, a backstory and a world that is peopled. It's now recognized that "setting" is a limited concept, one that cannot be separated from the intricate rules that govern the fictional world. Students examine fictional worlds and learn to build those worlds themselves, brick by brick or stone by stone. As we examine fictional texts throughout the semester, this creative writing class functions simultaneously as a fiction-writing workshop. This class is not limited to but is recommended for students interested in fantasy, science fiction or speculative fiction. Enrollment limited to 20. In this course, we explore the constructed worlds made by some wonderful writers and build fictional worlds of our own. The course involves both in-class participation and a great deal of writing, both the writing of fiction and writing about fiction. Each week, we read the fiction published in that week's edition of The New Yorker. In addition, we look at some of the works by the following authors: Ursula K. Le Guin, John Joseph Adams, Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, Bernard Malamud, and Franz Kafka.

Topic: The Landscape and Cityscapes of Creative Fiction.