English 815-001
Seminar in Fiction Writing: The Discovered Manuscript
Instr: Roberts, Sheila
Office: CRT 597; 229-4534
e-mail: svrob@uwm.edu
Office Hours: TBA
Course Information: M&W; 2:00-3:15pm; CRT 466
Course Description
We are all familiar with stories and novels that begin with a Preface, either written by an actual critic or commentator, or offered by an invented character, generally one who has unexpectedly found an old manuscript in a ruin or attic, for example; or who has had the document mailed to him by some stranger (either in prison or close to death and who begs him or her to ensure the text's publication). Examples in novels of the inclusion of the invented writer of the Preface are The Confessions of Josef Baisz and Her Story by Dan Jacobson; the "Etiology" that opens Moby Dick and Hawthorne's long, satiric "Custom House" section that precedes the inner story of The Scarlet Letter.
I have appended at the end of this course-description other novels and stories that you might be interested in examining, to get an idea of the varied nature of fictional of actual Prefaces and Introductions. The actual ones are generally critical/explanatory or concerned with the time frame of the novel. The invented ones avail themselves of a variety of speech-styles and tones, from the self-aggrandizing, to the apologetic or pleading. (Students do not necessarily have to read the entire book of the examples given - a first chapter will do - unless you are "caught".)
The requirements of the course will be for each person to write four very short stories (four pages or so), but with complete one page Prefaces. The stories should encode a mystery, a loss, a betrayal, the growth of wisdom, the dawn of love, or a crime, etc., at their core, and may be set in the present or in the decades or centuries of the past. It's adviseable to write the story first and then tackle the Preface, utilizing the new voice of the discoverer or recipient. We will work with these short stories during the first weeks of the course, reading them in class for enjoyment. Meanwhile, students should be giving thought to longer stories. These will be workshopped, then revised and polished for submission during mid-term week. (Obviously, for the workshop, students must make copies for everyone, including me.) The short-short stories should also be handed in to me on their completion. Perhaps some of the short/exercise stories might happily expand into longer ones?
We shall continue in this pattern of short-shorts plus Preface, in between workshopping the longer stories. The end-of-semester stories should be handed in during the week following the last week of class.
Grades will be apportioned in this way:| Four short-short stories, 10% each | 40% |
| Mid-term and end-of-semester stories, 30% each | 60% |
Lateness, absences, noisiness, and lack of class participation will certainly lower a grade. Late papers and Incompletes may be granted under exceptional circumstances.
Religious Holidays will be respected.
