Course Info: IA-0236
Course | IA-0236 Literary Journalism |
Long Title | The Practice of Literary Journalism |
Term | 2017F |
Note(s) |
Satisfies Distribution Textbook information |
Meeting Info | Franklin Patterson Hall 101 on T,TH from 9:00-10:20 |
Faculty | Michael Lesy |
Capacity | 16 |
Available | 1 |
Waitlist | 0 |
Distribution(s) |
Culture, Humanities, and Languages |
Cumulative Skill(s) | Multiple Cultural Perspectives Independent Work |
Additional Info | In this course, students are expected to spend at least six to eight hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time. This time includes reading, writing, research. |
Description | 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 read may include: Macdonald's H Is for Hawk, Filkins' The Forever War, Sack's Awakenings, and Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns. Students are asked to produce weekly non-fiction narratives based on encounters with local scenes, situations and people. Midterm and final writing projects are based on the fieldwork and the short non-fiction narratives that students produce, week after week. Fieldwork demands initiative, patience, curiosity, empathy, and guts. The writing itself must be excellent. Core requirements are: (1) Meeting weekly deadlines and (2) Being scrupulously well-read and well-prepared for class. |