Spring 2025 Writing UN3134 section 001

BUILDING BETTER WORLDS

Call Number 14767
Day & Time
Location
W 4:10pm-6:00pm
To be announced
Points 3
Grading Mode Standard
Approvals Required None
Instructor Molly L McGhee
Type SEMINAR
Method of Instruction In-Person
Course Description

As 20th century literary traditions prove increasingly ill-equipped to capture the realities of 21st century life, readers look towards fictional worlds for inspiration and escape from the political chaos of day-to-day existence. When we write we shape the world, because the worlds we imagine impact the world we inhabit. But what does it mean for a writer to 'build a world?' What obligations does the creator of a fiction have to readers who inhabit a world they wish to escape? Are the worlds we build for escape always political? Can we build another world as an avenue to better understand this one?

In this seminar we will explore the concept of "world building" by looking at a variety of work from authors who are known for their immense secondary worlds (such as J.R.R. Tolkein, Ursula K. Le Guin, N.K. Jemisin, or Octavia Butler) but also at fiction that applies techniques of both immersion and politics in ways that may subvert our understanding of what it means to 'create.' Writers discussed are as wide ranging as Toni Morrison, Angela Carter, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Margaret Atwood, Shirley Jackson, Ray Bradbury, Clive Barker, all the way up to contemporary writers whose works populate our best loved Independent bookstores: Helen Oyeyemi, Victor LaValle, Ted Chiang, Marlon James, Jeff VanderMeer, Colson Whitehead, Salman Rushdie, Carmen Maria Machado, Alexandra Kleeman, or Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah.

Web Site Vergil
Department Writing
Enrollment 15 students (15 max) as of 5:05PM Sunday, December 8, 2024
Status Full
Subject Writing
Number UN3134
Section 001
Division School of the Arts
Fee $15 Creative Writing C
Section key 20251WRIT3134W001