ENGLISH 5760: LITERARY NONFICTION

Nonfiction is in the facts. Creative nonfiction is in the telling. --Phil Gerard

Literary Nonfiction is: History of the personal essay from Greek philosophers through contemporary authors.   Reading and writing journals, letters, memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, editorials, and essays about travel, nature, history, current events, and other topics of "fact."  Crossing genres by employing authors' private voices and other creative techniques in developing informative, persuasive, entertaining, scholarly, public inquiry. 

--AASU Catalog

We also see creative nonfiction as the subject that binds together the three disparate strands in most English departments: literature, creative writing, and composition. --The Fourth Genre

Literary nonfiction (often called creative nonfiction) reports factually on events, places, and lives using techniques traditionally utilized by fiction writers and poets.  The result, ideally, is a true story packed with information, power, clarity, and beauty.

—Professor Moore's syllabus

Literary nonfiction is defined above. This course will explore these statements and test their accuracy as we come to define the genre ourselves. We will read critically in order to understand the form and the craft of the genre historically and contemporarily. We will also read to critique the writing of our peers to find ways to make all of our writing as successful as possible. And derived from our reading, we will find ourselves as writers of literary nonfiction composing the personal essay or memoir, the travel essay, and then an essay of literary journalism. So through memory, observation, self-discovery, and research, we will write in various traditional and non-traditional essay forms about people, places, and things. Through these writing exercises, we will always find we are locating our perspective on the richness of lived experience.

REQUIRED TEXTS:
Anne Lamott. Bird by Bird . Anchor Books. 038548001
D. Allison. Two or Three Things I Know for Sure. Plume Books 0452273404
Robert Root and Michael Steinberg. The Fourth Genre. Pearson Longman 0321244427

Book Club Selections—see attached assignment
Joan Didion. Where I Was From . Vintage 0679752862
Jill Christman. Darkroom. University of Georgia Press.
John D'Agata. Halls of Fame . Graywolf Press. 1555973779
Tony Horwitz. Confederates in the Attic . Vintage 067975833X
Mary Roach. Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers . Norton 0393324826

REQUIREMENTS

I believe that the best writing is derived from good reading; therefore, this class is reading intensive. I try to balance the reading load by giving you time to respond to the reading in class. In order to encourage you to keep up with the reading and to ensure your preparedness to participate in class discussions, you should expect to be asked to respond to your reading (textbook or handouts) in class every day. These in-class reading responses will sometimes take the form of quizzes, sometimes they will be a written response to a particular prompt, and sometimes they may be more creative or experimental. They may even be oral responses or participation responses, sometimes. They will require that you read the assigned texts thoroughly in order to be successful. You will need to be active readers! As opposed to reading journals, these responses will become a record of your thinking about your reading and classwork and will become an occasion for you to reflect and make connections. Reading responses will be worth 15% of your final grade.

Along with preparing you to be a better reader, this class will help you develop as a writer of non-fiction. Again, reading the writing of others helps you read your own writing more carefully and critically. Therefore, you will be responsible for responding to the writing of your peers. You will respond through constructive comments during in class workshops. You will also be responsible for at least one written response each workshop day. You will submit thorough thoughtful comments that your assigned writer can act on in their revisions. Writing responses will be worth 15% of your final grade.

You will be responsible for three 7-9-page essays. The first will be a personal essay or memoir, the second an example of travel writing, and the third a kind of critic-at-large piece, a bit of literary journalism. These three essays will be discussed more fully in separate assignment sheets. Please read and reread these assignment sheets and follow them closely. The essays should be 6-8 pages double-spaced in a font like Times New Roman 11 or 12. The heading should include your name, the date, and the title, no need for more. Use 1 or 1.25 inch margins. Do not do insulting page lengthening goofball spacing font arrangements. Essays will be worth 15% apiece for 45% total.

•  Book Club Participation and Group Presentations

For this requirement, we will produce and perform knowledge in another way—not through a single-authored essay or exam—but through group work. You will examine entire books of contemporary literary nonfiction in small groups as a “book club.” This will give you the opportunity to delve into a book examining a particular approach to the genre. You will have the opportunity to select one text to read for this requirement which will determine your book club groups. You and your group will read and reflect on the arguments this text is making about the nature of literary nonfiction. You will decide how to spend class sessions processing the text and then determine how you will share your observations with the rest of the class. Your reflection on this process and group presentation will comprise 10% of your final grade.

•  Final Portfolio

This final portfolio will give you a chance to return once more to your writing and make it as successful as it can be. At the end of the semester after the reading and workshops are completed, after the book club is through, and after you have received your letters from me, you will apply your new knowledge and experience of literary nonfiction to your essays one last time. This final portfolio will be a testament to your understanding of yourself as a writer and of the genre. It will consist of 12 to 18 pages of perfectly revised writing and a two-page reflection. It will be bound in a folder or binder. It will be lovely. Your portfolio will be worth 15% of your final grade.

ATTENDANCE

This is a class that depends on your being there. Your participation, readings responses, and quizzes cannot be made up. Therefore, you must be in class. You are allowed three absences. No excuses. No penalties. After three your grade will be dropped a letter per absence; you will be dropped from the course with a WF after seven absences. Excessive tardiness will also impact reading response averages and accumulation of absences.

FINAL GRADES will be based on the following scale:

A=90-100

B=80-89

C=70-79

D=60-69

F=GRADES BELOW 59

WRITING CENTER

The Writing Center located in 109 Gamble Hall can be a good resource for revising your essays if you would like a little extra help with your writing. It is a free service. Please consider taking advantage of it.

PLAGIARISM

All students at AASU must agree to abide by the Honor Code and Code of Conduct found in the appendix to the catalog. Be aware that plagiarism can result in dismissal from the university, failure of the course, or failure of an assignment. Cite any sources you use at any time in this class whether you are quoting directly or paraphrasing. See me or consult the Armstrong Atlantic State University Handbook if you are ever uncertain about the issue. Plagiarism will not be tolerated.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, AASU provides appropriate and reasonable accommodations to students with documented disabilities. Documentation and services are available at the Office of Disability Services located in Student Affairs in the MCC.

This syllabus is subject to revision at the instructor's discretion.

SCHEDULE:

The Fourth Genre will be referred to as FG

m1.10 Introduction to Course

w1.12 Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

m1.17 NO CLASSES

w1.19 Seneca, Montaigne, Woolf, White, Thoreau (handouts), Steinberg in FG 405-408

m.1.24 Memoir—in FG: Lopate 120-127 and 351-358, Lott 128-131, Balcita 13-17, Sanders (handout)

w1.26 Memoir—in FG: Toth 247-249, Cofer 55-61, Bartkevicus 18-31, Kingsolver (handout)

m1.31 Memoir— in FG: Blew 37-47, Conroy 62-66, Daum 67-75, Lamy 115-119, Sedaris (handout)

w2.2 Allison, Two or Three Things

m2.7 Workshop

w2.9 Workshop

m2.14 Workshop

w2.16 Workshop

m2.21 Book Club Meeting, ESSAY #1 DUE

w2.23 Travel— in FG: Hampl 306-315, Iyer 105-114, Tompkins 233-246

m2.28 Travel— in FG: Chavez 48-54, Gopnik 88-93, Root 188-194, Krakauer (handout)

w3.2 Travel—nature— in FG: Dillard 76-79 and 286-295, Ehrlich 80-83, Hogan 102-104, Lopez (handout)

m3.7 Workshop

w3.9 Book Club Meeting

SPRING BREAK

M3.21 Workshop

W3.23 Workshop

M3.28 Lit. Journ.— in FG: Acimen 5-12, Raymo 184-187, ESSAY #2 DUE

w.3.30 Lit. Journ./ Research— in FG: McPhee 146-154, Saner 208-214, critic-at-large (handout)

m.4.4 Lit. Journ.—Saltzman 195-201, White 250-265, Pope 449-454 and 455-462

w.4.6 Workshop

m.4.11 Workshop

w.4.13 Workshop

m.4.18 Book Club Meeting, ESSAY #3

w.4.20 Book Club Meeting

m.4.25 Book Club Presentation

w.4.27 Book Club Presentation

m.5.2 Portfolio Due

FINAL EXAM PERIOD-portfolio return