ENG 200 - Archival Quests (SYS) (1)

Contemporary approaches to shaping, preserving, and presenting historical memory have fostered a literary fascination with archives, book history, old and new media. This SYS integrates the study of fiction and poetry representing the idea of the archive with hands-on exploration of practical and ethical questions involved in archival work. Literary readings will include Margaret Atwood’s exploration of documents, story-telling, and truth in her latest novel, The Testaments. We will also explore the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry at the University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections at the UI Special Collections. Archival work will engage with twentieth-century publications of Cornell College’s Hillside Press and personal narratives in Cole Library’s archives. Part literary seminar, part lab work in book history and book art, part individualized research tutorial, part workshop in textual editing and e-publishing, Archival Quests will culminate in the creation of a digital exhibition curated by our class, publicizing personal story-telling, short fiction, and/or poetry by creative writers and artists whose work has been archived by Cornell College. Only open to sophomores.
(Sophomore Year Seminar (SYS)) (Humanities)