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Open Creative Nonfiction
Course Material
- Syllabus for Open Creative Nonfiction
- Week 1: Thursday, September 16th (synchronous meeting)
- Week 6+: October 26th (synchronous meeting)
- Week 6: October 19th and 21st (revised)
- Week 5: October 12th and 14th (revised)
- Week 4: October 5 and October 7th (revised)
- Week 3: September 28th and September 30th (revised)
- Week 2: September 21st and September 23rd (revised)
- Theme, Terms and Class Structure
Week 3: September 28th and September 30th (revised)
For Tuesday, September 28th, please post the following exercise to the shared googledoc:
EXERCISE:
Revisit your place and approach it as a historian. See it for its geography, its material culture, and with a longitudinal focus.
In your 2-3 page piece, address these questions:
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What shaped its environment?
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Who crossed, visited, or inhabited it?
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How has nature and natural disaster affected it?
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How has social change swayed its make-up?
For Thursday, September 30th, read your colleagues' pieces and prepare to lead discussion on one piece (tbd). Also familiarize yourself with these articles.
READING:
Jonathan Raban, “Second Nature.”
Rebecca Solnit, “Detroit Arcadia”
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
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How do both Raban and Solnit connect the subjects of their pieces to a sense of “home”?
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Where do the writers “show” themselves in the piece? When do they hide behind the information/narrative?
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Where do the details deepen the story, and where are they overkill?
