273 Intro to Lit. : Creative Writing / Who Am I This Time?
Good stories are like mirrors: they reflect back to us who we are. And sometimes we are surprised at what we see, because we are always changing. In this class we’ll look at stories about the transformations that happen to characters not unlike us: they fall in love, their moral strength is tested, and their minds and hearts are changed by events. The changes are sometimes good, sometimes not, and sometimes a bit of both. But all the characters learn from their transforming experience, and at the end have a deeper understanding of their identity and humanity as they ask “Who Am I This Time?”
We’ll be looking at a number of short stories and poems. We’ll also study the emotional transformation of characters through an episode in the Iliad by reading book 24, then a short novel (Ransom by David Malouf) that re-imagines the episode, then a play by Euripides (Hecuba) about the effect of the war on a loving (and vengeful) mother.
We’ll watch a magical/mythical feature film, Labryrinth by Guillermo del Toro, and read the film script. We’ll read a play by Arthur Miller, Incident at Vichy, and read the script.
And experience many more pieces of literary art.
Note: This is a reading and discussion class for students who are interested in how the creative mind works, taught by a creative writer; students will not be writing poems and short stories, critiqued by peers, so please don’t enroll if that’s what you’re looking for. Students will be assigned weekly writing tasks and four papers. Attendance and active participation are mandatory.