ENGL 587 The Breadth of Literary Nonfiction
Literary nonfiction has become one of the fastest-growing genres in the literary and publishing community. It encompasses forms from memoir and personal essay to literary journalism, travel writing, and hybrid forms like the lyric essay, as well as many others. Questions that we will continually ask in this course include: What can a memoir work reveal about our understanding of ourselves and of our world? How does nonfiction work to reveal the complex web of influences that shape one’s identity and how one views the world? How does an author suggest these influences in the genre of memoir, travel, or essay writing? We will also discuss memoir structure and the key elements of autobiographical storytelling. In addition to reading works of nonfiction, we will enhance our understanding by working through our own creative memoir or literary essay to better understand structure, storytelling/essay writing, and learning how to incorporate literary nonfiction into literature classes.
Scheduled: As needed
Offered
As needed