10:10a-11:00a MWF (15) 3 cr.
This course will attempt to answer the unanswerable: what makes
something funny. In
addition to discussing and leading discussions of the assigned books,
students will engage
in writing exercises and will produce two works of humorous prose,
either a short story or a
novel chapter or a personal essay. It is required that you have
already written fiction (at
least three to four completed short stories) and have taken a creative
writing class beyond
W103.
Reading List:
Carry on Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
Post Office by Charles Bukowski
Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth
The Golden Spur by Dawn Powell
Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
Enderby by Anthony Burgess
Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Without Feathers by Woody Allen
Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline by George Saunders
Naked by David Sedaris
The Short Stories of Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker