Description
The history of literature is full of writers turning to the art around them as inspiration — think of Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn” and countless other examples. But how has that storied tradition evolved in a contemporary world where we have constant access to art and media, from the Netflix shows we watch every night, to the movies we return to for comfort, to the Instagram accounts we follow, to the songs that serve as a backdrop to our daily commutes?
As creative nonfiction writing continues to blend subgenres, mixing the personal, the researched, the critical, there have never been more opportunities for a writer to engage with their own ideas and narratives through the works of art and media that permeate our lives. In this class, we will think about about personal essays and works of cultural criticism not as distinct genres, but as potential windows into one another, allowing writers new avenues through which to explore their own narratives and ideas, while also helping to dissect a work of art through their autobiographical connection to it.
We’ll look at examples from writers like Roland Barthes, David Shields, Hlton Als, Rax King and Hanif Abduraqib, mingling personal stories with works of film, music, high art, and reality TV, and use their essays as jumping off points for our own cultural/autobiographical writing.
