Fall 2018  |  ENGL 5090 Section 001: Readings in Special Subjects -- First Person Singular (31904)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Lecture
Credits:
4 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person Term Based
Class Attributes:
Topics Course
Meets With:
ENGW 5310 Section 001
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
09/04/2018 - 12/12/2018
Mon 04:40PM - 07:10PM
UMTC, East Bank
Lind Hall 207A
Enrollment Status:
Closed (7 of 7 seats filled)
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
General background preparation for advanced study. Diverse selection of literatures written in English, usually bridging national cultures and time periods. Readings specified in Class Schedule.
Class Notes:
http://classinfo.umn.edu/?hampl+ENGL5090+Fall2018 We will address questions about this alluring but often vexing narrative voice that comes in for so much criticism (Is the first person voice inevitably self-absorbed? How do you get the authority to narrate from the "I"?) We will attempt to look at our subject as dynamically as possible in an effort to take us beyond the narrow confines so often assumed about the first person pronoun. How can the first person represent more than one point of view? How does the first person narrator achieve detachment? Is the first person the voice of feeling or of thought? This is a reading course, not a workshop. There will, however, be opportunities for brief writing exercises, usually in the form of pastiches from our reading and sometimes brief personal essays related to specific reading. Class participation in discussion as well as willingness to read one's own work aloud and make brief formal presentations on the readings are key to success in the course. Readings will include at least one novel, short fiction, memoirs and essays, as well as an array of poetry. Some of the readings will be from "canonical" texts, but our focus will take us mainly to modern and contemporary writers in an effort to hear the first person as a leading voice of the age. Two or three writers whose work will be on the syllabus will visit the class during the semester. This course is designed for graduate students in creative writing and literature. It is an ideal reading course not only for nonfiction students but for poets and fiction writers and future literary critics and scholars who wish to focus on aspects of narration, and on what appears to be the signature voice of the age.
Class Description:
FIRST PERSON SINGULAR:
A course devoted to reading works in all three genres that employ the first person voice. While we will consider long and short examples from poetry and fiction, the heaviest concentration of readings will be from forms of nonfiction such as memoirs and personal essays. We will address questions about this alluring but often vexing narrative voice that comes in for so much criticism (Is the first person voice inevitably self-absorbed? How do you get the authority to narrate from the "I"?) We will attempt to look at our subject as dynamically as possible in an effort to take us beyond the narrow confines so often assumed about the first person pronoun. How can the first person represent more than one point of view? How does the first person narrator achieve detachment? Is the first person the voice of feeling or of thought?

This is a reading course, not a workshop. There will, however, be opportunities for brief writing exercises, usually in the form of pastiches from our reading and sometimes brief personal essays related to specific reading. Class participation in discussion as well as willingness to read one's own work aloud and make brief formal presentations on the readings are key to success in the course.

Readings will include at least one novel, short fiction, memoirs and essays, as well as a rich array of poetry. Some of the readings will be from the "canonical" texts, but our focus will take us mainly to modern and contemporary writers in an effort to hear the first person as a leading voice of the age.

This course is designed for graduate students in creative writing and literature. It is an ideal reading course not only for nonfiction students but for poets and fiction writers and future literary critics and scholars who wish to focus on aspects of narration, and on what appears to be the signature voice of the age.

Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/31904/1189
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
11 March 2016

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