English 891G - S-Form and Theory of Fiction

How do our most propulsive novels undo both ambition and voice? What aspects of unraveling make us care for a character or milieu? What makes up our contemporary sensibility regarding containment, unraveling, the diasporic, the archipelagic? This seminar for writers will help us consider how great work undoes its premises. Dramaturgy, theory, and concepts such as those of the technoself will help us consider forms of social interaction, while we read novels such as those by Adam, Aw, Buckley, Choi, Desai, Kitamura, Markovits, Miller, Orner, Reva, Szalay, Wood, and Xhoga. Presentations, writing (creative/analytic), and field trips will aid our exploration. Permission to enroll in the course is required for those outside the MFA.

This class is open to English graduate students only. Sub-title: The Novella

Didion: Predecessors, Cousins, Heirs. In this seminar for writers, dedicated to a major literary figure, we will consider Didion within the family of her chosen aesthetic ancestors and unwitting lovechildren. No matter whom Didion claims, together we will trace the birth and lineage of a writer within a very particular sociohistorical context. Why has the name Didion become synonymous with a certain engagement, disaffection, coolth, style? Our supplementary readings may include work by writers such as Adler, Auden, Augustine, Babitz, Baldwin, Berlin, Campbell, Eliot, Ford, Frew, Garner, Hardwick, Hemingway, Heti, Isherwood, James, Juchaw, Kushner, Mailer, Marquez, Moshfegh, Naipaul, O'Hara, Oates, Orwell, Sexton, Spiotta, Stevens, Watkins. Especially for writers not allergic to theory, our coursework will include reading, weekly presentations, written engagement, and final projects. Warm recommendation: prior to fall, read all Didion, especially the earlier work, though a few works from different periods will serve as our crucial foci.