1:00P-2:15P  MW  (25) 3 cr

COAS INTENSIVE WRITING SECTION

ABOVE SECTION OPEN TO HONORS STUDENTS ONLY.  OBTAIN AUTHORIZATION
FROM HONORS DIVISION, 324 N. JORDAN.

This course takes as its premise the very broad assumption that the writing of fiction is a way of
trying to compensate for, to make sense out of, and to respond creatively to loss, the experience
of which marks the human condition.  Put another way, this course is grounded in the belief that
we try to make up for our losses -- of innocence, of dreams, of others, of traditions -- by making
up stories.  In this context, the texts we will investigate come to represent something other than
simple lamentations.  They dramatize the possibility that loss can perhaps be most gracefully and
productively dealt with through the resilience and playfulness of the imagination.

To mine the riches born of loss, we will examine a number of novels, a couple of short stories,
and a novella (Melville's BILLY BUDD).  The texts represent a variety of modern narrative
strategies and so provide a broad range of artistic attempts to articulate -- and thereby to begin to
recover from -- personal as well as cultural losses.

Requirements:
-- 4 essays: 3-5 pages
--10 one-page response papers
--thoughtful, imaginative participation in class

Possible texts include:
Edgar Allan Poe, "The Purloined Letter"
Gustave Flaubert, "A Simple Heart"
Gustave Flaubert, MADAME BOVARY
Julian Barnes, FLAUBERT'S PARROT
Herman Melville, BILLY BUDD
Paul Auster, Jr., MR. VERTIGO
William Faulkner, AS I LAY DYING
Jeanette Winterson, WRITTEN ON THE BODY
Toni Morrison, BELOVED
Philip Roth, THE GHOST WRITER