Technical Seminars

Ezra Pound once famously asserted that “poetry to be good poetry should be at least as well written as good prose.” In this course we will focus on the most basic unit of prose composition, the sentence, in order to enhance the art of our lines. We will study how sentences are deployed across a diverse range of texts, in both poetry and prose, considering variations in complexity, address, mood, and mode, and will try our hands at both minimalist and maximalist methods. We will diagram sentences, contemplate grammars of feeling, and examine how the shape of thought itself is constructed by sentences unfolding in tension with poetic lines. From Walt Whitman to Lyn Heijian, from Henry James to Lydia Davis, we will draw on a wide array of 20th and 21st century writers, with the aim of expanding and refining our literary technique. 

Day/Time: Friday, 1:30-4:20

This seminar, designed primarily for Creative Writing students, is an in-depth examination of point-of-view. We'll "reverse engineer" the work of a wide range of writers to help us understand the foundational concepts underlying first- and third-person narration. And we'll examine less common point-of-view techniques, including third-omniscient, third-objective, second-person, first-person plural, and first-person in which the word "I" never appears. We'll read works by the likes of Jeffrey Eugenides, Nikolai Gogol, Tessa Hadley, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Zadie Smith, and Rachel Cusk. The emphasis will be on critical writing, but we'll also do several creative exercises. You'll learn how to better control and employ point-of-view and perspective and strengthen and nuance your knowledge of this fundamental part of storytelling.

Day/Time: Thursday, 2-4:50 PM

In conversations on literary craft, plot and structure are often used interchangeably. Yet, while plot refers to a causal sequence of events, structure is a broader term concerned with narrative patterning. This includes thematic layering, pacing, the order of scenes, perspective shifting, and more. In this course, we will examine structural arrangements in both canonical and contemporary works of fiction by Franz Kafka, Rachel Ingalls, Jenny Zhang, and others. We’ll look at scene, repetition, listings, disruptive elements, digressive voice, seemingly shapeless storylines, and how these variables factor in creating structure. In every instance, we will look at how structure accommodates and naturally derives from the story, rather than impose itself upon it like some alien force. While this is not a workshop course, come prepared to write and casually share work in class. Students will pursue both creative work and critical papers.  

Instructor: Ling Ma
Day/Time: Monday, 12:30-3:20