This capstone writing workshop and literature seminar delves into fiction that turns the lens back on itself, exploring how stories can narrate not just events but the act of telling. How do authors make authorship visible, performing rich, absorbing storytelling while rendering the storyteller transparently present? We’ll encounter fractal forms, comedically recursive structures, and experiments in communal self-reflection and embedded commentary. We'll examine representations of doubling, mirroring, and subtle, affective loops in narrative forms. Theoretical ideas from selected analytical texts will further our study of the self-questioning psyche in narrative play. Reflexivity will also be explored across media, through the narrative mise-en-abyme, self-referentiality, and process-oriented approaches of selected works of cinema, television, and art. Generative, inventive writing exercises and creative experiments will support students in enacting these strategies, translating theory into playful, self-aware practice and creating work that is, in itself, a kind of narrative frame.
As a Literary Arts Capstone in the Literary Arts path of study, the program schedule fluctuates to give students ample time for writing. After an initial period of generative writing exercises done together in community, the program structure shifts to a residency, during which period students have time to work intensively on writing, reading, and research individually and in student groups, meeting one-on-one with faculty. This is followed by a return to all program class meetings for intensive workshops, feedback, and revision, culminating in a celebratory reading of capstone projects.
Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:
8 - Creative Writing
8 - Literature