College of Arts and Humanities
IMF 51645 Fiction: Experimental Writing L
Instructor
Ted Morrissey
Class Type
Literature
Course Description
鈥淢ake it new鈥 was Ezra Pound鈥檚 motto as he helped to usher in literary modernism after the First World War, and since then waves of writers have taken Pound鈥檚 advice very much to heart by playing with virtually every element of storytelling. This course in experimental writing will examine myriad narrative techniques from writers who have established devoted cult followings to those who have regularly appeared on the bestsellers lists. Students will study these authors鈥 groundbreaking techniques and also work with their own narrative experimentation. Even writers who do not see themselves as 鈥渆xperimentalists鈥 will find ways to enhance the traditional techniques they are more accustomed to using. Moreover, it is important for teachers of literature as well as of writing to be familiar with nontraditional techniques of storytelling.
Textbook
Abramson, Seth, et al., eds., BAX 2020: Best American Experimental Writing, Wesleyan University Press, 2020 [978-0819579584]
Jackson, Shelley.
The Melancholy of Anatomy: Stories.
9780385721202