Reading and Writing Nonfiction: Mourning and Grief
LIT4458.01
Course Description
Summary
The elegy is typically understood as a poetic form which laments the dead: how might the elegiac essay or memoir work toward or away from the poetic tradition? What might be the qualities of the prose elegy? We will read works such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Notes on Grief, Naja Marie Aidt’s When Death Takes Something From You Give It Back: Carl’s Book, Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint’s Names for Light: A Family History, Sarah Manguso’s The Guardians: An Elegy for a Friend, Peter Handke’s A Sorrow Beyond Dreams, Joan Didion’s Blue Nights, as well as Roland Barthes’ Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography and Mourning Diary. Students will create work—both theoretical and creative—that confronts this species of nonfiction. Work will be discussed in a workshop setting.Prerequisites
Students must submit a creative nonfiction sample for application to the course, via this form by November 17. Students will be notified of acceptance by November 22.
Please contact the faculty member : jennyboully@bennington.edu
Corequisites
Students are required to attend all Literature Evenings, ¿ÐýÃŹÙÍø Translates, and Poetry at ¿ÐýÃŹÙÍø events this term, commonly held at 7pm on most Wednesday evenings.