Hybrid Forms: Experiments in the Contemporary Novel
In this course, we will examine an emerging movement in contemporary literature
that is preoccupied with blurring the boundaries between the conventionally
discreet forms of fiction and non-fiction. We’ll be reading mostly texts published in
the last few years, originally in English as well as in translation, which, despite their
status as fiction, break into the territory of the memoir and the essay, blending
imagination, autobiography, and essayistic reflection in challenging and innovative
ways. These novels, diverse in both form and content, share what the writer David
Shields has called a “reality hunger"; they seek to confront experience and
consciousness more directly than the conventional forms of the novel allow. As we
investigate this new mode of writing, we’ll be inquiring deeply into the relationship
between truth and fiction. What kinds of truth do novels make available to us? How
does the novel have to change in order to encompass our changing ideas of reality?
What strategies do contemporary writers use to get as close as possible to the real
grain of experience?
Our reading will consist of novels by Francisco Goldman, Sheila Heti, Ben Lerner,
Tao Lin, W.G. Sebald, and Alejandro Zambra, as well as critical essays by Milan
Kundera, David Shields, E.L. Doctorow, Zadie Smith, Roland Barthes, and others. We
will also be exploring film, music, and visual art that intersect with our concerns.
Students will each be required to submit three pieces of original writing: a
comparative analysis of 6-9 pages, an extensive reading journal, and either a final
critical essay or a work of autobiographical fiction informed by techniques we
encounter in our reading.
Required books (to buy in hardcopy at the NYU bookstore)
-Taipei, by Tao Lin
-How Should a Person Be, by Sheila Heti
-Say Her Name, by Francisco Goldman
-Leaving the Atocha Station, by Ben Lerner
-Austerlitz, by W.G. Sebald
-Ways of Going Home, by Alejandro Zambra
Reading Journal
This is your space, each week, to record your thoughts and questions about the
reading (and viewing and listening) we’re doing and to reflect on how it’s
overlapping with your life. Your writing in these pages will be playful, experimental,
informal, at times fragmentary and inconclusive, but at the same time you should
seek coherence and clarity. Each entry should be focused, however loosely, around
a theme or idea. You will be making at least two entries per week totaling between
2-4 pages. I will collect these journals at three different points during the semester.
Entries can begin in a notebook but must eventually be typed. We will have a lot
more to say in class about the substance of these pages. (30-60 pages by the end of
the semester)
Essay #1
For this essay, you will be comparing two novels. You will build your analysis
around an important formal relationship between the texts. You’ll be thinking about
similarities and differences on the level of form and what these suggest about the
larger significance of the two works. (7-9 pages)
Essay #2
For this essay, you will be writing a critical review of the novel that has moved you
most over the course of the semester. You will be trying to account for the work’s
larger meaning in light of some of the critical/methodological questions that we
have been raising over the semester. (7-9 pages)
Short Story
You will have the option of submitting an original work of autobiographical fiction.
This short story should reflect your engagement with our reading and with the
central questions that we have been exploring over the course of the semester. (1020 pages)
Grading
-20% Participation/ Attendance
-20% Reading Journal
-30% Essay #1
-30% Essay #2 or Short Story
Class Participation
The success of our class will depend of your willingness to speak up and make your
voices heard. To that end, Class Participation represents a significant portion of
your grade. Each of you will be expected to lead one discussion and to bring your
voice to every class—to share your thoughts, insights, questions, and confusions. All
assigned reading must be done in advance of the class meeting.
Attendance Policy
Students must attend every class session. Excused absences will be granted only in
the case of illness (confirmed by a doctor’s note) or for religious holidays.
Unexcused absences and lateness will negatively affect your Participation grade.
Three or more unexcused absences may result in failure of the course.
Class Calendar
(All required reading and viewing listed on a given class day must be completed
prior to that class. All texts other than the novels listed above will be made available
as handouts or linked on our NYU Classes site.)
Jan 26 selections by Knausgaard, Bolano, Davis
Feb 2 Taipei, part 1; “Man Vs. Corpse”
Feb 9 Taipei, part 2; Millennium Mambo (film)
Feb 16 Presidents Day—No Class
Feb 23 How Should a Person Be, part 1 & 2; Girls, S.1, Ep.1&2 (TV)
Mar 2 Reading Journal due; How Should a Person Be, part 3; Reality Hunger
(excerpt)
Mar 9 Say Her Name, part 1
Mar 16 Spring Break—No Class
Mar 23 Say Her Name, part 2 & 3; Mourning Diary (excerpt)
Mar 30 Essay #1 due; Leaving the Atocha Station, part 1; The Art of the Novel
(excerpt)
April 6 Reading Journal due; Leaving the Atocha Station, part 2; Close-up (film)
April 13 Austerlitz, part 1
April 20 Austerlitz, part 2; “False Documents”
April 27 Austerlitz, part 3; The Act of Killing (film)
May 4 Ways of Going Home, part 1; Bolano selections
May 11 Essay #2 or Short Story due; Reading Journal due; Ways of Going Home,
part 2