Reading and Writing: Literary Journalism
Course Description
Summary
With the practice of journalism undergoing its most profound changes since the invention of the television, this course will steep students in the traditions of criticism, literary non-fiction, reporting and cultural journalism that thrived during the golden age of print and have persisted in the Internet era. We’ll work our way through literary criticism from Robert Boswell to Virginia Woolf and from Lionel Trilling to Zadie Smith; we’ll trace how notions of authority in cultural journalism changed from the objective to the subjective and how the New Journalism of the 1960s and 1970s combined facts and research with creative sensibility and author’s voice. Students will discover for themselves through frequent writing assignments and workshops just how porous the boundaries are between traditional reporting, reviewing, profile writing, and more experimental forms like lyric essay. We’ll also listen closely to some of the most influential and innovative podcasts to create an anatomy of their appeal. Expect to read a whole host of literary journalists past and present including George Orwell, Rebecca West, Pauline Kael, Tete-Michel Kpomassie, Janet Malcolm, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Wesley Morris, Jia Tolentino.
Learning Outcomes
- To become steeped in practices of journalism from the early 20th Century onward that combine traditional reporting with deeper sight and creative, more ambitious writing techniques
- To explore the ways that 'subjective' reporting can amplify news stories and bring the reader closer to the subject
- To write frequent exercises and build a freestanding collection of reported essays that will be handed in as a final project
- To think deeply about the podcast and examine its uses and abuses in contemporary media
Prerequisites
Interested students should submit either a critical or creative writing sample (5 pp.) via this form XXXX by XXXXX. Admitted students will be notified by email on XXXX. All students may apply for multiple 4000-level Reading and Writing Courses in the same term, but, once accepted, may only enroll in one 4000-level Reading and Writing course per term.
Please contact the faculty member : banastas@bennington.edu
Corequisites
Students in all 4000-level Literature classes are required to attend Literature evenings on Wednesday nights, including Poetry at Bennington events, unless there is a documented conflict.