The Art of the Personal Narrative

Catalog description

In this intermediate creative writing workshop, students will explore how writers articulate a unique “I,” drawing directly from personal experience. Students will write their own narratives across several genres and in several modes, working at times from immediate observation, at others from memory, sometimes drawing upon research, and often using techniques of fiction and poetry to inspire creative writing that can push the personal essay and memoir in the direction of inspired fiction, poetry, and cross-genre experimentation. In addition to developing their own writing projects, students will read and analyze a range of exemplary texts in which writers use the “I” as point of departure for writing about the world--moving beyond narrow exploration of the “self” into dynamic engagement with others and with the environment, with history, the city, travel--and anything and everything else a great writer can make us care about. Prerequisite: CRWR-SHU 159 Introduction to Creative Writing OR Sophomore standing. Fulfillment: General Elective.