History Through Fiction

Catalog description

This course is a seminar studying historical principles through classic works of fiction. Through reading the great novels of our time, and by writing their own creative fiction, students will confront some of the most profound challenges of the historian: what, precisely, is the cause of historical change? How do individual stories and dramas relate to grander historical processes? This course is reading and writing intensive. Students will read novels from various cultures around the world, including Nigeria, antebellum US, South Africa, Korea, the Dominican Republic, and India. Students will also work on their own creative fiction pieces that speak to their moment in time.