ENGLISH 187C: The Evolution of the Feminist First-Person Essay, 2000-present (FEMGEN 187C)
The internet age has coincided with the rise of new and reinvented modes of nonfiction writing by women online. The feminist first-person essay (what simply goes by 'personal essay' in the business) has transformed internet writing formally, politically, and economically. The explosion inpopularity and shareability of this nonfiction subgenre has generated a host of new media and catapulted a new coterie of women writers into prominence. Which authors have exerted the most influence upon this new subgenre, how does the emergence of the first-person essay by women signify a mainstreaming of feminist dialectic, and how has this emergence been received by both a popular readership and the media establishment? This discussion-based course will investigate how the growth of the feminist first-person essay has promoted new publications and modes of publication. It will trace the genesis of the online personal essay genre from public journals like LiveJournal, Blogspot, and Tumblr, via its co
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The internet age has coincided with the rise of new and reinvented modes of nonfiction writing by women online. The feminist first-person essay (what simply goes by 'personal essay' in the business) has transformed internet writing formally, politically, and economically. The explosion inpopularity and shareability of this nonfiction subgenre has generated a host of new media and catapulted a new coterie of women writers into prominence. Which authors have exerted the most influence upon this new subgenre, how does the emergence of the first-person essay by women signify a mainstreaming of feminist dialectic, and how has this emergence been received by both a popular readership and the media establishment? This discussion-based course will investigate how the growth of the feminist first-person essay has promoted new publications and modes of publication. It will trace the genesis of the online personal essay genre from public journals like LiveJournal, Blogspot, and Tumblr, via its codification in online publications like The Toast, The Rumpus, Gawker, Jezebel, Guernica, The Hairpin, The Awl, and xoJane, to its eventual breakthrough into established newspapers, magazines, and traditionally published memoirs and essay collections.We will investigate questions like: How can the rendering of one individual's story benefit the political mandate of the collective? What is the first person's effect, and affect, in interspersing an author's personal experience, and what feminist potential does it contain? How does the myth of journalistic 'objectivity' conflict with the presentation of the first person, and how has this objectivity myth descended from patriarchal tropes of legitimation? What do the terms 'confessional' and 'silence-breaking' connote? How has social media simultaneously empowered these new modes of public feminist dialogue and also exposed feminist public intellectuals to alarming levels of harassment and abuse? How successfully has the personal essay subgenre acted in de-centering hegemonic identity structures including whiteness, class privilege, and heterosexuality? What role has the feminist first-person essay played in the emergence of heavily digitized political movements including Black Lives Matter and #MeToo? What is 'trauma porn', and how does it interface with the capitalistic structures of the first-person essay economy; what problems arise when capitalism and confessionalism intersect?
Last offered: Autumn 2022
| Units: 3-5
ENGLISH 188: Black Feminism and the SciFi of Octavia Butler (AFRICAAM 183, FEMGEN 188)
Octavia Butler's novels often begin with the question, 'how am I going to survive?' In short order, they usually ask next: what is trying to kill me?' In Butler's hands, these two questions produce theories of power and resistance, anarchy and tyranny, the death of planets and the birth of species. For the Black women at the center of Butler's novels, race and gender are explicitly inseparable from these questions, naming the violent systems imposed by an antagonistic world and the imperatives which give rise to strategies of response. At this intersection, Butler explores the fiercely practical and interpersonal politics of survival that women like her have had to fashion since the birth of the modern world. And with grim clarity, Butler invents worlds capable of holding a mirror to this one, extrapolating entire systems from those daily threats which test the limits of what can be thought and known. Are 'race' and 'gender' used to categorize humanity, or are they the tools used to in
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Octavia Butler's novels often begin with the question, 'how am I going to survive?' In short order, they usually ask next: what is trying to kill me?' In Butler's hands, these two questions produce theories of power and resistance, anarchy and tyranny, the death of planets and the birth of species. For the Black women at the center of Butler's novels, race and gender are explicitly inseparable from these questions, naming the violent systems imposed by an antagonistic world and the imperatives which give rise to strategies of response. At this intersection, Butler explores the fiercely practical and interpersonal politics of survival that women like her have had to fashion since the birth of the modern world. And with grim clarity, Butler invents worlds capable of holding a mirror to this one, extrapolating entire systems from those daily threats which test the limits of what can be thought and known. Are 'race' and 'gender' used to categorize humanity, or are they the tools used to invent the very category of 'the human'? Is culture constrained by our biology or is 'biology' a cultural construction? Can humanity harness our collective intelligence to avert the end of the world? Or is our collective intelligence what's killing us? These novels evoke a long tradition of Black feminist community organizing and have inspired contemporary strategies of organizing in turn. And they join Black feminist cultural theorists in untangling the predicaments of the 19th-21st centuries, not flinching at apocalyptic visions of futures we have already failed to prevent. Studying both of these Black feminist traditions alongside four of Octavia Butler's novels, we ask how such strategies of knowing and doing can possibly relate to one another, and what use we can put them to in the classroom and beyond.
Last offered: Winter 2023
| Units: 3-5
ENGLISH 190: Intermediate Fiction Writing
Intermediate course in the craft and art of fiction writing. Students read a diverse range of short stories and novel excerpts, complete writing exercises, and submit a short and longer story to be workshopped and revised.
Terms: Aut, Win, Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
ENGLISH 190A: AAPI Fiction Writing (ASNAMST 190)
This intermediate fiction writing course will feature readings from a variety of contemporary AAPI fiction writers. We will examine the various approaches and forms writers have utilized in writing about subjects political and personal. We will also look beyond the story itself to understand the authors' approaches to centering the AAPI experience, confronting intergenerational trauma, employing multilingual dialogue, repurposing genre, and navigating the ethics of incorporating family narratives. Students will write their own short stories which will be workshopped by the class. Entry into the course is via application.
Last offered: Spring 2024
| Units: 5
ENGLISH 190E: Novel Writing Intensive
The main requirement for this course is a 50,000 word novel. The course explores elements of novel writing including fictional structure, character creation, scene vs. summary, as well as description, narration, and dialogue. Students will read four to five short novels during the first half of the course and then participate in National Novel Writing Month, an international writing event. Students will additionally write synopses, outlines, character sketches, and search tirelessly for the novel's engine: its voice. Designed for any student who has always wanted to write a novel.
Last offered: Autumn 2024
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
ENGLISH 190F: Fiction into Film
Workshop. For screenwriting students. Story craft, structure, and dialogue. Assignments include short scene creation, character development, and a long story. How fictional works are adapted to screenplays, and how each form uses elements of conflict, time, summary, and scene.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
Instructors:
Beaty, G. (PI)
;
Labowskie, M. (PI)
ENGLISH 190G: The Graphic Novel
Interdisciplinary. Evolution, subject matter, form, conventions, possibilities, and future of the graphic novel genre. Guest lectures. Collaborative creation of a graphic novel by a team of writers, illustrators, and designers.
Last offered: Autumn 2024
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
ENGLISH 190H: The Graphic Novel
Continuation of
English 190G. Interdisciplinary. Evolution, subject matter, form, conventions, possibilities, and future of the graphic novel genre. Guest lectures. Collaborative creation of a graphic novel by a team of writers, illustrators, and designers.
Last offered: Winter 2025
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
ENGLISH 190HO: Creatures of the Dark: Ghosts and Ghouls of Horror Fiction
What is horror? Why does it appeal to us, and what makes it successful? This intermediate-level fiction class seeks to explore the dark side of our imaginations through a variety of historical and contemporary contributions to the genre, from Mary Shelley to Victor LaValle. Students will practice craft techniques in a series of short writing assignments and study plot construction, the suspension of disbelief, and propulsive action in service of their readers. Prerequisite:
English 90 or 190.
Last offered: Winter 2022
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-CE
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 10 units total)
ENGLISH 190L: Levinthal Tutorial in Fiction
Undergraduate writers work individually with visiting Stegner Fellows in fiction. Students design their own curriculum; Stegner Fellows act as writing mentors and advisers. Students will meet once per week with the Stegner Fellow and also four times a quarter in discussions sections with other students and the Levinthal Program Coordinators. Times to be announced upon acceptance.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
Instructors:
Finkel, D. (PI)
;
Juarez, R. (PI)
;
Moon, S. (PI)
;
Sutter, D. (PI)
;
Trahan, J. (PI)
;
Waring, C. (PI)
;
Washington, D. (PI)
;
Cui, R. (TA)
;
James, V. (TA)