Spring 2019

Hybrid Forms

Listed in: English, as ENGL-473

Faculty

Shayla I. Lawson (Section 01)

Description

The non-traditional texts of writers like Claudia Rankine, Maggie Nelson, Viet Thanh Nguyen and Alison Bechdel have garnered great success that has introduced new audiences to the world of hybrid forms. Through close reading and a study of works at the apex of literary deconstruction, we will erase the lines drawn between poetry and prose, image and memoir, percentage graph and fiction and will embark on an expedition through contemporary hybrid texts, asking what dictates how we define genre.

Completion of this course will include a collaborative oral presentation guiding the reading of one of the semester’s assigned texts and a final critical research project presented in a hybrid form that breaks the boundaries of expected academia.  Use of hybridity in the construction of all class assignments (short essays, personal responses, reflections, etc.) will be strongly encouraged.

Open to juniors and seniors.  Limited to 18 students.  Spring semester.  Writer-in-Residence Lawson.

If Overenrolled: Preference given to junior and senior majors.

Keywords

Artistic Practice, Attention to Issues of Class, Attention to Issues of Gender and Sexuality, Attention to Issues of Race, Attention to Research, Attention to Speaking, Attention to Writing

Offerings

2022-23: Not offered
Other years: Offered in Spring 2019, Fall 2021