Experimental Writing

Course Description

Experimental Writing is an invitation for students to challenge what they have been taught about writing. The course asks: How radical can we get? and, What about audience--is experimental writing by definition hostile to readers, or can we experiment toward greater inclusiveness? Perhaps counter-intuitively, Experimental Writing promotes the thoughtful consideration of all writing techniques--radical and conventional.

Our course will introduce students to contemporary American writing, as well as to the creative writing workshop format. We will discuss poems, non-fiction and fiction, while paying close attention to technique. Students will complete writing assignments inspired by our reading. As we workshop these assignments, students will learn to critique and to have their worked critiqued according to the standards established by the discussion of our literary examples. Our class will serve as a foundation for students interested in the further study of both modern American literature and of creative writing. By paying careful attention to language in readings, creative responses, and revisions, students will develop tools for close reading that under-gird the study of literature; these are the same skills that prepare students to craft expressive writing, whatever its genre.

In this course, students will develop vocabulary and critical tools necessary to analyze all genres of literature (fiction, poetry, drama, etc.). They will learn to implement these tools to describe and analyze canonical literature. Students will also learn the difference between simple editing and complex revising; by the end of the course, they will be able to truly revise their written work.

Prerequisites: An interest in reading and an openness to writing in a variety of genres is required.