Administration Guide:
Topics:
- The Law & the Prophets:
The Cross-Genre Text from Ancient Times to the Present Day
- Themes:
- Origins of Genre Theory
-
Primary Text:
- The Bible: from The Book of Job (c.5th century BC) Critical Text:
- Dennis Tedlock: "Towards a Poetics of Polyphony and Translatability." In A Book of the Book: Some Works & Projections about the Book & Writing (2000)
- Modern Wisdom Literature
-
Primary Texts:
- William Blake: from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790)
- Robin Hyde: from The Book of Nadath (1937)
- Origins of Genre Theory
Techniques of Framing & Assemblage
- Themes:
- The Monogatari Tradition
-
Primary Text:
- Sei Shōnagon: from The Pillow Book (1002) Critical Text:
- Donald Keene: from Travelers of a Hundred Ages: The Japanese as Revealed Through 1,000 Years of Diaries (1989)
- When is a Diary Not a Diary?
-
Primary Texts:
- Kathy Acker: "A Journey to the End of the Night." In Blood and Guts in High School (1984)
- Olivia Macassey: “The Uncanny Truth about Abelard" (2002)
Fiction as Mediated Text
- Themes:
- The Self-Analytical Story
-
Primary Text:
- Jorge Luis Borges: “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote” (1939) Critical Text:
- Michael Chabon: “Trickster in a Suit of Lights: Thoughts on the Modern Short Story” (2008)
- The Meaning of Meaning
-
Primary Texts:
- Martin Armstrong: "Sombrero" (1929)
- Lydia Davis: “We Miss You: A Study of Get-Well Letters from a Class of Fourth-Graders” (2007)
New Journalism & the Non-fiction Novel
- Themes:
- Gonzo & New Journalism
-
Primary Text:
- Norman Mailer: from The Armies of the Night: History as a Novel / The Novel as History (1968) Critical Text:
- Tom Wolfe: "Introduction." In The New Journalism (1973)
- Creative Non-fiction & Life Writing
-
Primary Texts:
- Hunter S. Thompson: "“The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved” (1970)
- Martin Edmond: from Chronicle of the Unsung (2004)
Contemporary Epic & Narrative Poems
- Themes:
- The Bourgeois Epic
-
Primary Text:
- Michael Ondaatje: from The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (1970) Critical Text:
- Kathy Acker “The Invisible Universe” (1982)
- Story-telling & Mosaic
-
Primary Texts:
- Leicester Kyle: from Heteropholis (1998)
- Lynn Jenner: from Dear Sweet Harry (2010)
Non-fiction as Poetry
- Themes:
- The Art of Abjection
-
Primary Text:
- Susan Howe: “The Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.” In The Birth-Mark: Unsettling the Wilderness in American Literary History (1993) Critical Text:
- Roland Barthes "The Pleasure of the Text" (1973)
- Where Now?
-
Primary Texts:
- Anne Carson: "The Fall of Rome" (1992)
- Richard von Sturmer: from We Xerox Your Zebras (1988)
Individual Author Pages:
- Kathy Acker (1947-1997)
- Martin Armstrong (1882-1974)
- W. H. Auden (1907-1973)
- Roland Barthes (1915-1980)
- Matsuo Basho (1644-1694)
- The Bible (c.1400-400 BC / c.50-200 AD)
- William Blake (1757-1827)
- Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986)
- Truman Capote (1924-1984)
- Anne Carson (1950- )
- Michael Chabon (1963- )
- Lydia Davis (1947- )
- Martin Edmond (1952- )
- Susan Howe (1937- )
- Robin Hyde (1906-1939)
- Lynn Jenner (1955- )
- Donald Keene (1922-2019)
- Leicester Kyle (1937-2006)
- Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009)
- Olivia Macassey (1975- )
- Norman Mailer (1923-2007)
- Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977)
- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
- Michael Ondaatje (1943- )
- Sei Shōnagon (c.966–1017)
- Dennis Tedlock (1939-2016)
- Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005)
- Richard von Sturmer (1957- )
- Tom Wolfe (1931-2018)
Recommended Further Reading:
- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900): Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for Everyone and No One (1883-1885) [1 - wisdom literature]
- Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694): Back Roads to Far Towns: Basho's Travel Journal. Trans. Cid Corman & Kamiake Susumu. Illustrated by Hide Oshiro. (1986) [2 - haiku diary]
- Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977): Pale Fire (1962) [3 – fiction as mediated text]
- Truman Capote (1924-1984): In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences (1965) [4 - non-fiction novel]
- W. H. Auden (1907-1973): The Orators: An English Study (1932) [5 - collage poem]
- Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908-2009): Tristes Tropiques (1955) [6 – poessay]