ENG 451 - Reading for Writers: Aesthetic Theory

Course unit(s): 1
In this course, we will study books from a range of genres up against essays on writing and reading, interrogating our ways of reading, our aesthetic proclivities and biases, and the relationship between our apprehension of texts and our own world-building through writing. Where do politics and poetics collide, inform, or undermine each other in our reading and writing practices? How do we decide what good writing is? What does it do to us and what do we feel like it should contribute to our lives? We will consider the life of the author/ artist in context and conversation with their work, and examine the role of a creative writer in society. We will interrogate the imaginative, critical, and formal processes involved in creative writing and the nature of aesthetics (in both others’ work and our own); what do we mean, for example, when we experience a text as compelling or beautiful? How does the way we approach or analyze a text influence its effect on us? In addition to critic-creative responses, students will create a sustained creative piece of their own, and learn to approach their writing with enhanced purpose. Finally, we will learn—from great contemporary writers—various ways of meaning-making and widen our writing practice by attempting both to diagnose our own skills and desires, and to experiment more wildly with style, form, and content. Satisfies Departmental Poetry or Prose requirements, and Departmental Social Justice Requirement.