Fall Quarter, 2003 Course Descriptions and Application Information

The Art of Poetry: American Imaginations
The Art of Expository Prose: Narrative Nonfiction

These courses are limited to fifteen students and will meet for a minimum of three hours a week with frequent additional tutorial hours.  In addition to selected readings and regular writing exercises, these classes will require a final polished portfolio of work or a substantial writing project.

The Art of Poetry: American Imaginations

Writing 302
W.S. Di Piero
Tu/Th 2-3:20 pm

THE ART OF POETRY: AMERICAN IMAGINATIONS
A course in modern American poetry, but not a survey.   Students will read ample selections of the work of six or seven poets, some well known (Rober tFrost, William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore), others less so (Lorine Niedecker,  Robert Hayden, Thomas McGrath, James Schuyler).  The purpose is not only to rough-sketch one version of the history of modern American poetry, but also to work toward an understanding of the signature imagination that shapes any one body of work and to speculate on how they all contribute to a poetic imagination that's uniquely American.  Students will be expected to write critical prose, make a seminar presentation, and submit for workshop discussion poems in imitation of the poets we study.

This class is open to all undergraduates who meet the following requirements: 1) one writing intensive course at Northwestern (i.e., courses in writing poetry or fiction in WCAS; the basic writing course in Medill; the screen writing courses in Speech), or one discipline-based course stressing writing 2) a writing sample of 5-15 pages submitted with application.

TO APPLY FOR THIS COURSE, CLICK HERE.

The Art of Expository Prose: Narrative Nonfiction

Writing 303-0
Alexander Stille
M/W 2-3:20 pm

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This will be a course in the practice and study of narrative nonfiction. It starts from the premise that factually based prose can be as engaging and literary as fictional narrative, while also reporting on, informing about and exploring some aspect of the world in which we live. The course will teach techniques of reporting and research, try to instill a respect for factual accuracy, as well as a feeling for novelistic detail and narrative technique.  It will try to help students to think about stories structurally, to develop a form for a piece that fits their material as well as showing the ways in which narrative structure can sustain a longer story. We will try to show how to make personal experience of broad interest as well as how to give narrative life to make seemingly abstract ideas. While we will read articles and book-length pieces to try to identify successful narrative strategies, the main job of the course will be writing. Students will be asked to do regular assignments and build toward a single, longer narrative on a subject of their choice. There will be regular one-on-one meetings with the instructor as well as class discussion of work in the seminar.

This class is open to all undergraduates who meet the following requirements: 1) one writing intensive course at Northwestern (i.e., courses in writing poetry or fiction in WCAS; the basic writing course in Medill; the screen writing courses in Speech), or one discipline-based course stressing writing 2) a writing sample of 5-15 pages submitted with application.

<BACK