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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. We will strive for clarity, concision, and expressiveness as we read and respond to a range of historical and contemporary texts.

This Scriptorium will focus on the works of Japan’s Studio Ghibli. Studio Ghibli’s critically-acclaimed animated films concern complex, real-world themes ranging from war to environmental degradation to gender politics and self-discovery. As we read these films through the lens of diverse theories of culture, literature, and film, we will learn to interpret them in nuanced and creative ways. Furthermore, because many of the films adapt source material from written forms including novels, folklore, and short stories, we will think about adaptation and about cross-cultural similarities and differences in forms of storytelling. As we learn how to become astute close readers of film, literature, and criticism, we will also learn how to think and write—from an informed and respectful place—about sources from cultural contexts that may be unfamiliar to us.