HZ9101: Introduction to Creative Writing
COURSE OUTLINE
Division of English, Nanyang Technological University
Semester 2, AY 20114/2015
Course Coordinator: Assistant Professor Divya Victor
Email address: dvictor@ntu.edu.sg
Office: HSS 03-59
This course introduces creative writing through the practices of writing, reading and
collaborative critical response. We will work with poetry, fiction and multimedia texts
(which include performance writing, graphic novels, artists’ books and electronic word
art). Each unit is designed to foster skills in language and creativity that can be applied
beyond the given genre and beyond the classroom. In particular, we will work towards
greater understanding and control of language's material presence, its referential power,
and the relationships between content, form and reception. Students will be introduced to
a range of composition processes intended to stimulate frequent and adventurous writing,
and will be encouraged to make disciplined and inventive use of the revision process.
They will also develop their abilities to create and participate in a fertile writing
community.
ASSESSMENT
Course Assessment Summary
1.
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5.
Class Participation: 20%
Fiction, 1000-1500 words 20%
Poetry, 400-600 words 20%
Multimedia project, 300 word minimum 20%
Reading & Writing Journal, 1000 words plus exercises 20%
Textbooks/References
Students will be provided with a course reader, a cache of PDF files, and links to
necessary online materials.
Week
SEMINAR SCHEDULE
Topics
Week
1
Topics
Introduction.
Establishing a writing practice, engaging in literary community.
Charles Bukowski, M. Nourbese Philip, Terry Tempest Williams,
2
Fiction.
Setting: detail, world, texture
Readings: Sherman Alexie, Miguel Syjuco, Angela Carter, Dave Chua,
Fiona Cheong
3
Fiction.
Narrative: event, causality, sequence, duration.
Readings: O Thiam Chin, Philip K Dick, Maxine Hong Kingston
4
Fiction.
Character: agency, desire, conflict, development.
Readings: Dorothy Parker, Akhil Sharma, Jamaica Kincaid, Ernest
Hemingway
5
Fiction.
Narration: Voice, point of view, scope and distance.
Readings: Virginia Woolf, ZZ Packer, Jonathan Safran Foer, Tammy Ho
Lai Ming
6
Poetry.
Referential structures: voice, situation.
Readings: Alvin Pang, Barbara Cole, Harryette Mullen, William
Shakespeare, Grace Chua
FICTION ASSIGNMENT DUE: Friday, 19th of September, 1 PM
7
Poetry.
Referential structures: image, association.
Syvia Plath, Wallace Stevens, Boey Kim Cheng, Alfian Sa’at
Week
Topics
8
RECESS
9
Poetry.
Material language: words as sounds.
Readings: a. rawlings, Paul Celan, Tracie Morris, Caroline Bergval,
Chritian Bok, Bernadette Mayer, Emmett Williams
10
Poetry.
Material language: form and shape
Readings: Frank O’Hara, Sutadji Calzoum Bachri, Jam Ismail, Susan
Howe, Grace Chia, Aram Saroyan
11
Multimedia.
Medium and reading process: temporality and performance
Douglas Kearney, Tracie Morris, Shelly Jackson, Fluxus
POETRY ASSIGNMENT DUE: Friday, 24th October 1 PM
12
Multimedia.
Form and content, embodiment and composition
Fiona Templeton, CA Conrad, George Perec
13
Multimedia.
Context and audience. Collaborative communities of production.
Allan Kaprow, Jordan Scott/Stephen Collis,
14
Revisioning.
Radical and refining rewrites.
MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION CLASS
MULTIMEDIA ASSIGNMENT +
READING AND WRITING JOURNAL DUE: In presentation class
this week