ENG 106 - Serializing Fiction (W) (1)

Long before The Sopranos, Game of Thrones, and Breaking Bad, nineteenth- century writers perfected the art of serial publication-issuing their novels in weekly or monthly installments. Charles Dickens, famously, published all fifteen of his novels in one serial format or another. His friend Wilkie Collins offered this memorable recipe: “Make ‘em cry, make ‘em laugh, make ‘em wait.”This writing course will consider what it means to narrate in time. What is the relationship between narrative time and lived experience, the days and the years? We will begin with that great forerunner of serial narrative, Scheherazade, whose perpetual tale-telling in The Arabian Nights literally saved her life. Then we will read an archetype of Victorian serialization and bring the story up-to-date with examples drawn from film and television. Assignments include a creative-writing project, a close reading, and a proposal for a research essay on the TV show of your choice. Not open to students who have previously completed a First Year Writing course.
(First Year Writing Seminar (FYW)) (Humanities)