COL 213 - Advanced Fiction-Writing: The Suspense Story

Institution:

Wesleyan University

Subject:

College of Letters

Description:

This course will focus on advanced fiction-writing techniques used in suspense fiction and will explore the concept of genre. Are fictional genres such as the suspense thriller, the detective story and the literary story artificial constructs, or do these labels meaningfully distinguish between categories of fiction with distinct traditions and qualities? Students will begin the semester by wrestling with definitions of the suspense thriller and examining techniques used by Gothic writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Mary Shelley to evoke mood and suspense in fiction. Thereafter, the class will chart the emergence of the detective story genre in the works of Poe and Wilkie Collins; read classic detective stories by such authors as James Cain, Patricia Highsmith, and Georges Simenon; and learn plotting techniques exalted by masters of the detective story. Paula Sharp is the author of four novels and a collection of short stories. She is writer-in-residence at the College of Letters and has taught there since 2003.

Credits:

1.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Seminar

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.wesleyan.edu

Phone Number:

(860) 685-2000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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