Course Description
Summary
The Scriptorium, a “place for writing,” is a class for writers interested in improving their critical essay-writing skills. We will read to write and write to read. Much of our time will be occupied with writing and revising—essai means “trial” or “attempt”—as we work to create new habits and productive strategies for analytical writing. As we write in various essay structures with the aim of developing a persuasive, well-supported thesis statement, we will also revise collaboratively, improve our research and citation skills, and study grammar and style. Our learning goals include practicing to write with complexity, imagination, and clarity. This Scriptorium’s readings will center on the themes of femininity and masculinity—and gender performance in between and beyond; we will watch the film Barbie (Greta Gerwig 2023) as a beginning. We will also study critical essays and theory to provide a framework for our discussions. (This is not a Creative Writing course.) Our readings may include the following authors: Gloria Anzaldúa, Honoré de Balzac, Jorge Luis Borges, Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Shohini Chaudhuri, Bora Chung, Denise Duhamel, Michel Foucault, Manuel Gonzalez, Stuart Hall, Donna Haraway, Ursula K. Le Guin, Clarice Lispector, Audre Lorde, Nina MacLaughlin, Aoko Matsuda, Herman Melville, Alice Munro, Sianne Ngai, Ovid, Patricia Pinho, Rainer Maria Rilke, Karen Russell, and David Trinidad. And, we may read from the following authors for their relevant critical or personal essays, philosophy, and theory: Lauren Berlant, Judith Butler, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Mary Douglas, Michel Foucault, Jack Halberstam, bell hooks, Laura Mulvey, and Riki Anne Wilchins.
