"Post-1865" literary history and "diversity"

This class will survey literature by Puerto Rican writers both on the island and on the mainland starting with authors seeking freedom from Spanish Colonial rule followed by those writing against American political and cultural domination, to the “Bootstraps” generation, through the Nuyorican poets, and up to contemporary spoken word artists. This class seeks to provide a general interdisciplinary survey of Puerto Rican cultural production including a variety of genre such as poetry, fiction, non-fiction (including speeches and newspaper columns), drama, and film. Using a chronological procedure and contextual process to cover as much ground as possible, we will explore the socio-political and economic factors leading to Puerto Rican migration to the mainland with a particular focus on the impact of Puerto Ricans in Central Florida.

In this class students will learn about and identify the various types of nonfiction writing including memoirs, narratives, cultural commentaries, rants, personal essays about current events and/or contemporary issues and lyric essays. Together we will read closely selected works and student texts and understand common literary techniques and elements of contemporary literary nonfiction. Students will engage in creative and analytical writing of varying lengths related to students’ own interests but also the content of readings and discussions and actively participate in productive workshops by providing useful feedback and being a conscientious workshop member. Besides various written assignments, students will conduct an oral history interview to listen carefully for another’s storytelling, life experience, and cultural contexts in order to improve one’s own nonfiction narratives.

CRW 4122M Advanced Fiction Writing

This mixed mode section of CRW 4122M will engage students in writing activities, assignments, workshops and readings to provide a foundation of theory, style, and critique so that they may be able to produce fiction in a variety of styles/genre. Students will provide each other peer-feedback in small and large groups with the foundational ideas and practices by which imaginative work is done. Students will work in a workshop environment that would expose them to prewriting and editorial skills through revision, the critique of one another’s work, and a full engagement with the intensity of the process of creative invention. This class will therefore be conducted and organized primarily as a workshop, and each student will be required to contribute to the process.

CRW 4122M Advanced Fiction Writing

This mixed mode section of CRW 4122M will engage students in writing activities, assignments, workshops and readings to provide a foundation of theory, style, and critique so that they may be able to produce fiction in a variety of styles/genre. Students will provide each other peer-feedback in small and large groups with the foundational ideas and practices by which imaginative work is done. Students will work in a workshop environment that would expose them to prewriting and editorial skills through revision, the critique of one another’s work, and a full engagement with the intensity of the process of creative invention. This class will therefore be conducted and organized primarily as a workshop, and each student will be required to contribute to the process.

CRW 4122M Advanced Fiction Writing

This mixed mode section of CRW 4122M will engage students in writing activities, assignments, workshops and readings to provide a foundation of theory, style, and critique so that they may be able to produce fiction in a variety of styles/genre. Students will provide each other peer-feedback in small and large groups with the foundational ideas and practices by which imaginative work is done. Students will work in a workshop environment that would expose them to prewriting and editorial skills through revision, the critique of one another’s work, and a full engagement with the intensity of the process of creative invention. This class will therefore be conducted and organized primarily as a workshop, and each student will be required to contribute to the process.