SYLLABUS
HUMS 619-01: August 6-10 Flash Fiction/Prose Poetry: An Immersive Reading and Writing Workshop Instructor: Martine Bellen Email: [email protected] Room: Downey Hall 100
Though flash fiction (short short stories) and prose poetry have been known to rub elbows from time to time, readers of flash fiction will tend to discuss texts in terms of character, plot, conflict, while readers of prose poetry will deliberate about sound devices, figurative language, and rhythm. In this workshop, close readings of these two genres will be conducted, investigating, side by side, how they work as a means to explore fresh avenues of entry into fiction and poetry, using the other as a springboard to more deeply navigate each genre. In the reading component of the workshop, we will learn how ordinary prose can be heightened to create extraordinary word environments for both fiction and poetry and in the creative writing component, we will apply to our writing the techniques identified in discussions about texts. All participants will be expected to write both flash fiction and prose poetry and to workshop both genres.
Texts (can be found at bookstore or ordered online): 1. David Lehman (editor), GREAT AMERICAN PROSE POEMS (Scribner) 2. James Thomas, Denise Thomas & Tom Hazuka (editors), FLASH FICTION: 72 VERY SHORT STORIES (W.W. Norton & Company) 3. THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF JOE BRAINARD (The Library of America) 4. Harryette Mullen, SLEEPING WITH THE DICTIONARY (University of California Press) 5. Barbara Henning, LOOKING UP HARRYETTE MULLEN: INTERVIEWS ON SLEEPING WITH THE DICTIONARY AND OTHER WORKS (Belladonna)
Oral presentations: prepare a 15-minute oral presentation on the author (and his or her book/prose) that you’re assigned. (Each student will be assigned an author—assignments will be sent to student a month before class begins.) An email will be sent to your Wesleyan email address, so if you are not using that email account, you are responsible for emailing me to find out which author you are assigned. Only the student doing the oral presentation needs to read the complete book of that author. The other students need to read the individual works of that author that have been published in one of the anthologies, with the exception of SLEEPING WITH THE DICTIONARY (and the ancillary interview book) and THE COLLECTED WRITINGS OF JOE BRAINARD, which should be read by everyone. Oral presentations should include author’s bio, information about the tradition (author’s influences/intentions) of the work. If possible, find an interview, or two, to better understand the author’s practice. Analyze author’s writing techniques and analyze, unpack, the poem / story that the class has and discuss how that work fits into the entire collection that you’ve read. If you feel inclined to discuss another work from the book in detail that the class doesn’t have a copy of, please Xerox the work to be discussed so everyone has a copy and can participate. For Mullen, we’ll work with the three poems in the Lehman anthology but you can also choose to discuss other pieces. Presenters need to prepare one or two discussion questions for the class.
Final Project: Six pieces that have been written for the class—first draft and revised drafts of three of pieces and first draft of others.
Attendance policy: Since class lasts for only one week, no absences are permitted. If an emergency arises where you have to miss a partial day, please speak to me before the missed portion of the day or it will not be counted as excused and you’ll fail the class.
Grades will be based on attendance and participation, writing assignments and oral presentation.
Presentations will be made of the work of the following authors (other authors might be added): John Ashbery; Rosmarie Waldrop; Charles Simic; James Tate; Lydia Davis; Harryette Mullen; Joe Brainard; Raymond Carver; David Foster Wallace; Jamaica Kincaid; Julio Cortazar.
Other work to be read: Snow by Alverez; Subtotals by Burnham; A Continuity of Parks by Cortazar; The Paring Knife by Oppenheimer; The Widow by Updike; Here’s Another Ending by Williams, and other prose pieces by Yasunari Kawabata, Clarice Lispector, Jayne Anne Phillips, W.S. Merwin, Lyn Hejinian, Jorge Luis Borges, and Frank Bidart, and others.
Day 1 History of genres—blurring genres. An Introduction. Taking a photo. Going from haibun to haiku. The flash of a camera, flash fiction and prose poetry. The visual and the linguistic. Seeing and saying. Presentations. Discuss work by Ashbery, Simic, Yasunari Kawabata, Paul Lisicky, and Jayne Anne Phillips, and others. Writing exercises.
Day 2 Chance Operations. Oulipo. Following the dictionary. Presentations. Discuss work by Harryette Mullen (read SLEEPING WITH THE DICTIONARY and LOOKING UP HARRYETTE MULLEN), David Foster Wallace, Jamaica Kincaid, Gregory Burnham, Rosmarie Waldrop, Lyn Hejinian, Leslie Scalapino, and others. (lists) Writing exercises. Critiquing your writing.
Day 3 Exercises in style. Meta-writing. Presentations. Discuss work by Clarice Lispector, Jorge Luis Borges, Frank Bidart, Julio Cortazar, Fred Leebron, Diane Williams, and others. Writing exercises. Critiquing your writing.
Day 4 Fables, tall tales, dreams. Presentations Discuss work by James Tate; Lydia Davis, Russell Edson, W.S. Merwin, Maxine Chernoff, and others. Writing exercises. Critiquing your writing.
Day 5 I remember—Detailing your writing. Presentations Discuss work by Raymond Carver, Joe Brainard, Ron Padgett, Wang Ping, Julia Alverez, Michael Oppenheimer, and others. Writing exercises. Critiquing your writing.