Intro to Genres: Parody

Undergraduate / Graduate

Beginning writers are often told to imitate 'great authors' to discover their voices. One way to reconcile imitation with originality is to copy works from literary history with a comic touch. In this course, students will satirize poetry, fiction, and nonfiction from the history of Western literature to learn how art works. Parodying Stein's portraiture illuminates the workings of literary mimesis; satirizing Lispector's proliferating points of view adumbrates perspectival horizons in narrative; satirizing Tanizaki's praise of shadows illustrates the mechanics of nonfiction polemic. Students will write imitations of literary works and a final mock-academic essay on parody and mimesis.