“She was singularly like a bad illustration.”
Henry James, “The Real Thing,” 1892
“Shake it like a Polaroid picture…”
Andre 3000, “Hey Ya!,” 2003
As the two very different quotes above suggest, finding similes and metaphors is as easy as falling off a log — or taking candy from a baby — or shooting fish in a barrel. We seem to thrive on comparing one thing to another, in a never-ending attempt to capture just what it is that’s essential, interesting or unusual about an object, experience or person. Metaphors are everywhere in literary texts — to say nothing of our everyday language — and trying to articulate what makes them so compelling is just the sort of close analysis that you will learn to master in this course. As you read and write about a variety of literary texts, you will sharpen the analytic skills you need to become a savvy interpreter of any text you encounter — whether written, spoken, blogged, photographed or filmed.
You will also investigate how the metaphoric “hunch” — the notion that finding the common ground between two unlike things can reveal new insights about both — can help you improve your writing. How does “reading” and writing about a photograph, for example, change how you “see,” read or write about a short story? And how does picking apart the details of a rich passage of description in a literary text change how you interpret the lyrics and music of your favorite song?
This writing course focuses on the creation of complex, analytic, well-supported arguments that matter in academic contexts. You will work closely with your peers and with me to develop your written prose. In addition to producing four polished pieces of analytical writing about the texts we discuss in class, you will also be responsible for writing a collection of shorter, more informal pieces that reflect on both our texts and your own writing process more generally. Each of the four formal writing assignments will be workshopped at various points during the writing process. Providing thoughtful, timely feedback to your peers during workshops and responding usefully to the feedback on your writing that you receive is also a crucial component of this course.
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