WRITING THE ESSAY I: ON BEING ILL. Forty-two years ago, Susan Sontag wrote, “Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and the kingdom of the sick ... Sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.” At this moment, when the world is wracked by a pandemic, we have an especially keen sense of this second citizenship and of the challenges, both ethical and practical, that it poses. In this seminar, we will examine how we think and write about illness and contagion, looking at texts drawn from various disciplines, among them literature, history, philosophy, and medicine. Throughout, we will follow Sontag in paying close attention to the metaphors we use for illness and the way illness serves as metaphor, asking what it means to live and write in a time when the two “kingdoms” of which she speaks are increasingly difficult to separate. Readings will include fiction by Lu Xun and Daniel Defoe, scholarship by Perundevi Srinivasan, Paul Farmer and Claire Colebrook, and memoir by Jamaica Kincaid, Leslie Jamison, Alphonse Daudet and Virginia Woolf.

WRITING THE ESSAY I: THE COMING OF AGE NOVELLA. What does it mean to grow up? In this first-year writing seminar, we will read and respond to a range of 20th and 21st century novellas that reimagine and reinvigorate the classic literary genre of the bildungsroman, which traditionally depicts a young person’s moral or spiritual education. As we read, we will investigate how various writers depict separation from the family, sexuality, intimations of mortality, and questions of justice. We’ll ask questions such as What is knowledge? and How is the (growing, changing) self constituted by its particular social world? Authors may include Morrison, Kincaid, Greene, Maxwell, McCullers, Torres, and Murata.

WRITING THE ESSAY I: STRANGER THAN FICTION. How do we make sense of the unexplainable? What do stories about the paranormal reveal about the human condition and our imaginations? In this first-year writing seminar, students will delve into tales of extraordinary phenomena, folklore, urban legends, and encounters with the extraterrestrial and supernatural. From UFOs and poltergeists to doppelgängers and premonitions, this course will investigate what the unfathomable can teach us about the power of storytelling and personal truth. Through a multi-genre offering of readings, reflections, and prompts, students will examine how strange stories of the past and present explore the complexities of desire, fear, and belonging while crafting extraordinary works of their own. Students will read Alexander Chee, Kelly Link, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Elissa Washuta, Etgar Keret, Esmé Weijun Wang, Jordan Kisner, Mira Ptacin, Colin Dickey, Karen Russell, Otessa Moshfegh, Anthony Doerr, and others.

WRITING THE ESSAY I: ADVENTURES IN BOREDOM. All day long, boring experiences threaten our enjoyment of life. Waiting for the train. Washing the dishes. Attending required college courses. But what do we mean when we call something “boring”? Where does boredom come from? And is there any benefit to being bored? In this first-year writing seminar we’ll explore these questions and many more through an exciting and unpredictable selection of reading and writing assignments. Topics will include: small talk, long speeches, the science of how we experience time, handheld devices, the internet, capitalism, “women’s work,” reality television, intentionally boring films, Buddhism, asceticism, meditation, mindfulness, heroin, prison, the Internal Revenue Service, the fear of missing out, the lives of zoo animals, life in a boring town, living off the grid, summer vacation, heaven, and silence.