ADVANCED FICTION: WRITING IN THE WORLD. This course will build on concepts of fiction writing learned in Introductory and Intermediate Fiction by engaging in a sustained manner with the kind of reading, analysis, writing, and revision practices that are likely to help one progress further with one’s writing and prepare a student for a Senior Capstone in Writing. This will involve, along with actually writing fiction, an examination of literary terminology, an understanding of questions of style, form, genre, and literary genealogy, a study of the material circumstances within which fiction writing takes place, and the ability to combine research, analysis, and collaboration with what we call imagination. Significant emphasis will be given to close reading, focused discussion, and creative exercises, all of this culminating in a story of 10-12 pages.

In this workshop class students will study and practice the art of storytelling. In order to deepen understanding of the relationship between authorial intention and reader response, they will read work by established authors (as well as one another) and offer written and oral analyses that detail the mechanics of literary technique. In our reading of canonical as well as contemporary authors drawn from a diverse range of national literatures, we will parse the literary process from inspiration through execution to reception. The goal here is to refine our perceptual ability as readers so we can employ this heightened awareness as writers. This discussion—focusing on form, style, rhetorical technique, narrative voice—will inform each student’s project: sustained works of fiction by semester's end.