Readings & Assignments

"An odious exhibition of journalists dabbling their fingers in the stuff of other people's souls."


Week 1 – Aug 24


"Fiction is a bridge to the truth that journalism can't reach."

"Journalism, you see, always moves along on a horizontal plane, telling a story, while fiction — good fiction — moves vertically, taking you deeper and deeper into character and events. By treating a real event with fictional techniques (something that cannot be done by a journalist until he learns to write good ficition)."
Truman Capote
  • Class Introduction
  • Blogs / RSS Feeds / Send Me URL
  • Divvy up authors from The New New Journalism


For Week 2
Readings
Examples of Literary Journalism


About Literary Journalism - History of It, Criticism of It, Writing It, Etc.
On Writing (video)
Week 2 – Aug 31

"Every journalist has a novel in him, which is an excellent place for it."
  • New New Journalism Presentations
Lecture
Seminar Discussion

  • Digging text / video by Seamus Heaney (sublime?)
  • Mitchell as elegist -- identify places where he refers or alludes to the past and change
For Week 3
Readings
Examples of Literary Journalism
  • AOF from The True and Genuine Account of the Life and Actions of the Late Jonathan Wild, by Daniel Defoe -- Page 23
  • AOF Great Tasmania's Cargo, by Charles Dickens -- Page 38
  • AOF from The Life of Samuel Johnson, by James Boswell -- Page 29
  • Also read: The Ultimate Literary Portrait
  • Some questions to consider: Consider the issue of truth in these examples. Is there anything that might make you think any of these are partly or wholly made up? How was the line between fact and fiction drawn in the early days of journalism? What are the elements here that raises this journalism to something literary? This requires a close reading and a little research
About Literary Journalism
  • OWL Introduction and Chapter 1-4
  • AOF Preface, by Ben Yagoda -- Page 13
  • The Making of a Journalist by Julian Ralph. Check out this brief century-old advice to would-be writers of journalism. The section titled Choosing the Profession
  • On the Periodical Essayists, from Lectures on the English Comic Writers, William Hazlitt. Here Hazlitt, centuries ago, is exploring the intersubjective possibilities of what was a relatively new form of writing. You might have to forget the modern world and settle into this old style of writing which is difficult in its wanderings but delicious in its way with words.
  • Hutchins Hapgood, A New Form of Literature, Bookman 21 (1905): 424-427. You might need to go to Page 424. Keep in mind here that the interview was a relatively new form (see last graph on page 47) of journalism – and here Hapgood is talking not about inverviewing the rich and mighty. Is this century-old advice still applicable?
  • W.T. Stead and the New Journalism: There are three readings here. Simply search out the references to New Journalism in each. Stead is considered one of the founders of the new journalism – and Thomas Hardy did not think much of it. In his essay titled Up to Easter he denigrated it and in a sense created the term New Journalism and the pejorative notions surrounding it. Explain Stead and his contribution in your Reading Reaction
Week 3 – Sept. 7
"Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk for people who can't read."
Frank Zappa
Lecture
  • Montaigne to Hazlitt
Seminar Discussion
Lecture
  • Notes on Research Craft
For Week 4
Readings
Examples of Literary Journalism
War and Conflict
  • AOF from Specimen Days, by Walt Whitman -- Page 46
  • Powerful description of story by reporter who was not there.
  • This requires a close reading. Whitman, as you know, was a poet as well as a journalist. He has a strong grasp of the power of language and employs words and sentences as tools. How so?
  • AOF from Dispatches, by Michael Herr -- Page 494 (read the introduction, too)
  • How does the chaotic kind of writing work here in Dispatches? Is it somewhat similar to the staccato style of Whitman's story?
  • C. D. B. Bryan, Friendly Fire
    • Do some background research on the writing of this book and who Bryan is.
  • Read The Things That Carried Him and check out Inside the Things That Carried Him and A Radio Interview With Chris Jones, who followed a soldier's body from Baghdad to its final resting place in the soldier's hometown of Scottsburg, Ind. Jones discusses the long journey in "The Things That Carried Him," a detailed article in Esquire magazine about the transfer of remains.
  • AOF Tienanmen Square, by John Simpson -- Page 347 
  • Read In Cold Blood – finish by Week 5
  • AOF from In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote -- Page 161  (Read intro) For Week 5
About Literary Journalism
Week 4 – Sept. 14
"Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be read once."
Cyril Connolly
Lecture
Seminar Discussion
Research Paper
  • Proposal with short annotated bibliography for research paper. File as post to your blog by Monday of Week 4.
  • Slug this Paper Proposal
  • Bring a copy to class.
  • Proposal Discussion and Brainstorming
  • Paper meetings.
For Week 5
Readings
Examples of Literary Journalism: 
About Literary Journalism
Optional Reading
Week 5 – Sept. 21
"Dip your pen into your arteries and write."
William Allen White
Lecture
Seminar Discussion
For Week 6
Readings
Examples of Literary Journalism
  • Begin Book 3 – Your Choice from List – finish by week 8
  • AOF from The Earl of Louisiana, by A. J. Liebling -- Page 258
About Literary Journalism
Week 6 – Sept. 28
 “Journalism allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers an opportunity to live it.”
John Hersey
Lecture
Seminar Discussion
  • Writing problematics (tentative)
  • Research Update (tentative)
For Week7
Readings
Examples of Literary Journalism
(Gonzo)
About Literary Journalism
Week 7 – Oct. 5
“People may expect too much of journalism. Not only do they expect it to be entertaining, they expect it to be true.”
Lewis H. Lapham
Lecture
Seminar Discussion


For Week 8
  • NOTE: Rough outline and updated annotated bibliography for research  paper due as post to blog by 1 p.m.  Monday of Week 8. Slug this Research Outline.
Readings
Examples of Literary Journalism
Biography, Memoir & Autobiography
  • Learning to Read from Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X
  • Black Like Me (scan through this to get a sense of it so you can write about it in your abstract and discuss it in class)
  • The Man Who Changed His Skin:  In 1959, John Howard Griffin, a white Texan, became an itinerant Southern black for four weeks. His account of the experience galvanized the nation. Excerpts from this article
  • Death of an Innocent, by Jon Krakauer. This is the story in Outside magazine that later became the book Into the Wild
  • A Cry in the Night, by Tom French
    • This is a link to a series French did 20 years ago about a murder in Gulfport, Fla. He was covering cops then and couldn’t get this case out of his mind. A young woman was savagely attacked in her home, but was able to get to the front porch and scream. Though a dozen of her neighbors heard the scream, no one called police. He eventually wrote two series—an earlier four-parter and this longer one. French also wrote a book about the case called Unanswered Cries. It was published in 1988 and, according to The New York Times, has sold more than 400,000 copies, including more than 35,000 just last year. This is example of how thorough reporting and inspired storytelling can create superb journalism.
About Literary Journalism
Week 8 – Oct. 12
“Journalism is literature in a hurry.”
Matthew Arnold
Lecture
Seminar Discussion
  • Book 3 due this week. Be ready to talk about your book and author. Introduce to class.
  • Seminar Discussion
  • Rough outline and updated annotated bibliography. Post to blog by Monday of Week 8. Bring enough copies of outline and bibliography for entire class. Slug this Research Outline.
For Week 9
Readings
Examples of Literary Journalism
Underworld
  • AOF Experiment in Misery, by Stephen Crane -- Page 63 
  • AOF from Coyotes, by Ted Conover -- Page 331
  • AOF from The People of the Abyss, by Jack London -- Page 83
  • AOF Spike, by George Orwell -- Page 245
  • AOF from Harlem on My Mind, by Lawrence Otis Graham -- Page 384 
  • AOF from The Bronx Slave Market, by Marvel Cooke -- Page 252
  • AOF from Snake Handling and Redemption, by Dennis Covington -- Page 391 
About Literary Journalism
  • OWL Chapter 14 and 24.
Week 9 – Oct. 19
“Journalism is concerned with events, poetry with feelings.
Journalism is concerned with the look of the world, poetry with the feel of the world.”
Archibald MacLeish
Lecture
Seminar Discussion
  • Tentative: Meetings re outline and bibliography.
For Week 10
Readings
Examples of Literary Journalism:
Sports

Optional Reading:
About Lit Journalism - History of It, Criticism of It, Writing It, Etc.:
Week 10 – Oct. 26
"Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers another."
Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Lecture
Seminar Discussion


For Week 11


Note: I am moving the deadline for your rough draft to Tuesday of Week 11 by 1 p.m. Note that the schedule calls for meetings rather than class in Week 12. We will set these up in class on Tuesday. Slug this Research Draft. Bring copies for class.
  • Rough draft of research paper. File to e-Learning as Word document by 1 p.m. Monday of Week 11.  Slug this Research Draft. Bring copies for class. 
Readings
Examples of Literary Journalism:
  • AOF Morris Markey, Drift -- Page 93 This requires a close reading.
  • AOF from Portrait of Hemingway, by Lillian Ross -- Page 129 (Also read intro and commentary at end)
  • AOF Lady Olga, by Joseph Mitchell -- Page 439
  • Little Women Look Back on Lost World by Rick Bragg 
  • Compare and contrast these last two stories about similar subjects. Keep in mind one was written for a magazine and the other for a newspaper.
About Literary Journalism 


Week 11 – Nov. 11
"A petty reason perhaps why novelists more and more try to keep a distance from journalists is that novelists are trying to write the truth and journalists are trying to write fiction."
Graham Greene
Lecture
Seminar Discussion




Note: I am moving the deadline for your rough draft to Tuesday of Week 11 by 1 p.m. Note that the schedule calls for meetings rather than class in Week 12. We will set these up in class on Tuesday. Slug this Research Draft. Bring copies for class.
  • Rough draft of research paper. File to e-Learning as Word document by 1 p.m. Monday of Week 11.  Slug this Research Draft. Bring copies for class.
  • Schedule paper conferences
  • Be prepared to present excerpts from your final RESEARCH project to the class. This, of course, means you cannot put off the writing until the end.
For Week 12
Readings
Examples of Literary Journalism:
In these readings, consider this quote from Stephen Crane:
"I endeavoured to express myself in the simplest and most concise way. If I failed, the fault is not mine. I have been very careful not to let any theories or pet ideas of my own creep into my work. Preaching is fatal to art in literature. I try to give to readers a slice out of life ; and, if there is any moral or lesson in it, I do not try to point it out. I let the reader find it for himself. The result is more satisfactory to both the reader and myself. As Emerson said: 'There should be a long logic beneath the story, but it should be kept carefully out of sight.' "
  • AOF Juke Joint, by Walter Bernstein -- Page 104
  • AOF When Man Falls, a Crowd Gathers, by Stephen Crane -- Page 58 
  • AOF Death of Rodriguez, by Richard Harding Davis -- Page 71
  • John Wayne: A Love Song byJoan Didion – in her book Slouching Towards Bethlehem
About Literary Journalism
Week 12 – Nov. 9
"If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer,  and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist."
Norman Mailer
  • No class 
  • Research Paper conferences to be scheduled
For Week 13
Readings
Examples of Literary Journalism:
About Literary Journalism
Week 13 – Nov. 16
"The best use of a journal is to print the largest practical amount of important truth, –  truth which tends to make mankind wiser, and thus happier."
Horace Greeley
  • Final Non-Fiction Story due by class time. File to e-Learning
    • Bring in enough double-sided copies for everyone in class.
For Week 14
Readings
Examples of Literary Journalism: 
What do these have in common?
  • AOF from Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, by James Agee -- Page 417
  • AOF Marrakech, by George Orwell -- Page 433 (note: What does this piece and Didion's have in common?)
  • AOF Los Angeles Notebook, by Joan Didion -- Page 480
  • Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream, by Joan Didion
About Literary Journalism
Week 14 – Nov. 23
"I read the newspaper avidly. It is my one form of continuous fiction".
Aneurin Bevan
For Week 15
  • Final Research Paper due. File to e-Learning by 1 p.m Monday of Week 15. Slug Final Paper
Readings
About Literary Journalism
  • OWL Chapter 25.
Week 15 – Nov. 30
"Truth is not only stranger than fiction, it is more interesting."
William Randolph Hearst
  • Final Non-Fiction Story Workshopping
  • Final Research Paper due. File to e-Learning by 1 p.m Monday of Week 15. Slug Final Paper
  • Be prepared to offer a 10-minute conference presentation (I will cut you off at 10) of your research paper to the class just as though you were presenting at a conference.  For tips on presenting papers, see this link.

Week 16 –  Dec. 7
  • Paper presentations continued.

A Poem for Literary Journalists?
So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years -
Twenty years largely wasted, the years of l'entre deux guerres -
Trying to learn to use words, and every attempt
Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure
Because one has only learnt to get the better of words
For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which
One is no longer disposed to say it. And so each venture
Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate
With shabby equipment always deteriorating
In the general mess of imprecision of feeling,
Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what there is to conquer
By strength and submission, has already been discovered
Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
To emulate – but there is no competition –
There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.
"East Coker" in T.S. Eliot's "Four Quartets"

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)