Artful Attention

Catalog description

When we think of groups that are othered, who and what do we mean? Is the other always defined against hegemonic ideas of race, gender, sexuality, class? Can we understand American othering outside of post-colonialism? This seminar focuses on reading as writers. The subject of the work read covers othering, which is to say, work that investigates who and what constitutes an othered experience, the ways writers contend with that othering in their work, and the cultural and political forces that push an othered voice to 'the edge' of society. Takes a multiethnic/cultural/gender/genre approach to study, examining fiction, nonfiction and poetry from Black, Asian, Native American, Latinx and queer writers. That list includes Jesmyn Ward, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Jia Tolentino, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Maggie Nelson and Ocean Vuong. Engages with the ideas in the texts as well as reads them as a writer does, which is to say with an eye toward discerning the choices each writer has made in composing his or her work. Pays special attention to the attributes comprising each writer's literary voice. Engages in rigorous inquiry, prompted informal writing and formal writing in the form of response-papers and a creative prose assignment with a critical reflection.