Clock with No Hands: Time as Character in Narrative

Catalog description

Stories are always about time--the movement of time and change over time, who we once were and who we’re becoming. In this course, we’ll explore alternative ways to render time in service of narrating experiences and ways of seeing underserved by Freytag’s pyramid and/or traditional frameworks of Western linear temporality. We’ll investigate what’s made available by narratives that realign and remix time, such as short novels such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold and William Maxwell’s So Long, See You Tomorrow, as well as films, like Chris Marker’s La Jettée and Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love. Students can expect a substantial workload of reading and generative exercises. Students will also have the opportunity to workshop a short story and receive feedback.