Writing from the Archive: Imagining the Real

Undergraduate

Where do the dry, who-what-which details set down on a census form meet the far messier and richer reality of the people whose names are scrawled there? And how might a writer bring that meeting about? What can a shoebox of doodle-filled letters tell us about the ways that friendship, art, war, sex, and politics struck a couple of New York novelists, c. 1941? How do we respond as writers and as a culture when faced with the lack of such inky particulars? Blending seminar and workshop, this class is meant for students who want to write literary non-fiction based on archival materials. In an intensive, hands-on fashion, we’ll dig into documents of all sorts as we read essays and excerpts from belletristic works that wrestle with the sometimes slippery fact of the archive. Throughout, we’ll ask how best to bring vital prose into being. Weekly writing experiments that draw from various Yale collections and beyond will encourage students to see and respond to archival discoveries freshly and for themselves. A semester-long writing project will take shape as an extension of that seeing and responding. While no previous archival experience is required, this class calls for a serious commitment to the written word. By permission of instructor. Limit 12. WR , HU Th 1:30pm-3:25pm