Fall 2010

Introduction to Non-Fiction: Fact and Alchemy - LLSW 2010 B

Professor(s):  Elizabeth Kendall 
Day(s):  MW
Time(s):  2:00 pm - 3:40 pm 
CRN:  4085
Credits:  4
Prerequisite(s):  Prerequisites: Writing the Essay, or permission of the chair.

Course Description
Besides providing the opportunity for students to write Non-Fiction, this course exposes students to a critical vocabulary of the genre, stylistic techniques, and forms prevalent within it, as well as extensive and diverse readings within, and at the boundaries of, the genre. Students engage in textual analysis, and will learn to locate readings in a larger literary and literary-historical context. Finally they develop a sense of process and revision within the genre. A number of different writerly approaches to fact-based narrative will be explored and examined in this introductory survey, through the work of such writers as Tim O’Brien, Rosemary Mahoney, Ian Frazier, Norman Stone, Michael Pollan, Kyoko Hayashi. Students will get a chance in course assignments, to try out for themselves many of these approaches.