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Course Criteria
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4.00 Credits
In this workshop, students will learn the fundamentals of dramatic structure and develop their skills in creating compelling characters, dialogue and plot. Students will complete a monologue, a ten-minute play, and a short one-act play by the end of the term. In addition to discussing student writing, we will also read a selection of contemporary plays in order to discuss the elements of drama.
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4.00 Credits
This workshop introduces the art, craft, and business of screenwriting. Students will complete short scripts and off-beat writing exercises focused on dramatic structure, character development, dialogue, theme, and tone; students will also analyze films and screenplays. By exploring visual storytelling, personal versus commercial sensibilities, and alternative approaches to script creation through the writing of short screenplays, students will acquire the tools, skills, and confidence to create feature film scripts.
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4.00 Credits
Whether in essay, memoir or reportage, creative nonfiction employs many of the same literary techniques as fiction: narrative structure, character development, scene-setting, extended dialogue, emphasis on voice and point of view. In addition to workshopping student writing, we discuss examples of the genre by writers such as Virginia Woolf, William Maxwell, Joan Didion, and John McPhee. Assignments include two 10-15 page narratives, an extensive revision, and typed critiques of classmates' work.
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4.00 Credits
In any long-form nonfiction (essay, memoir, travelogue, journalism), there are countless ways of structuring and telling a true story. In this workshop, students examine various techniques for giving nonfiction material dramatic and suspenseful energy: chronology, argument, juxtaposition, retrospection, evolving revelation. In addition to workshopping student writing, we discuss examples of the genre by writers such as Julia Blackburn, Truman Capote, Spalding Gray, and Janet Malcolm. Assignments include two 10-15 page narratives, an extensive revision, and typed critiques of classmates' work.
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4.00 Credits
Open by application to undergraduates and graduates. This is a poetry workshop involving critical analysis of student work as well as reading and discussion of poems by established poets. On a weekly basis we will examine student poems and the practical issues in poetics (descriptive language, syntax, diction, etc.) they bring to light. Be prepared to do imitations; some memorization may also be required.
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4.00 Credits
Open by application to both undergraduates and graduates. Please submit a portfolio including five poems, a letter explaining your interest in the class, and a list of relevant classes taken at Harvard or elsewhere. Class includes the discussion of literary texts as well as work written by students.
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4.00 Credits
An introduction to fundamental aspects (technical and conceptual) of writing fiction, beginning with short exercises and moving toward the completion and revision of original work. Readings include Munro, Welty, Diaz, Lahiri, and others, and explore how practicing writers negotiate character, narrative structure, setting, voice, etc. Individual reading assignments are also devised on a per project basis. As the term continues, increasing amounts of time are devoted to the discussion of student work.
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4.00 Credits
Writers will become familiar with more sophisticated aspects (technical and conceptual) of writing fiction, beginning with short exercises and moving toward the completion and revision of original work. Readings include Munro, Welty, Diaz, Lahiri, and others, and we will explore how practicing writers negotiate character, narrative structure, setting, voice, etc. Individual reading assignments are also devised on a per project basis. As the term continues, increasing amounts of time are devoted to the discussion of student work. Students in this course will be expected to revise work often and to a very high standard.
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4.00 Credits
Members of the advanced fiction workshop will aim to raise their levels of performance on the page, largely through guided revisions and continued reading to see the ways outstanding writers solved similar problems. Two complete stories with revisions are required during the term, as well as weekly critiques of colleagues' work.
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4.00 Credits
An introduction to the short story with emphasis on amplifying the idea of what a story can be. We will look at a range of contemporary narrative strategies that exploit--in the best sense of the word--voice, character, place, logic, and (always) language. Readings will include Barry Hannah, Tillie Olsen, Leonard Michaels, Mark Richard, Mary Robison, Yasunari Kawabata, and selected poets. Short assignments will aim to strengthen writing at the sentence level, and suggest personal ways into the largest concerns. Students should expect to complete and revise two stories, and be prepared to discuss the work of colleagues each week.
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