Training in writing expository prose. Instruction in expository writing in conjunction with reading literature. Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement.

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” – Leo Tolstoy Tolstoy’s iconic opening lines to Anna Karenina tap into a great truth: perfect families don’t exist, and even if they did, it’d make for some dull formative years. Conflict and dysfunction are indeed signs of life; and life is a constant process of making family and family unmaking you. In this course, we will explore literary and cinematic depictions of families across the 20th and 21st century. Our opening gambit will be parsing through normative, idealized conceptions of what constitutes the so-called “nuclear” family. Where do these ideals come from? We will then pivot into considering representations of families that deviate from or subvert such paradigms. In unit one, students will close-read works by Toni Morrison, Loraine Hansberry, and Hirokazu Koreeda, focusing on the ways in which race, gender, and economic status impact filial power dynamics. Unit two focuses on intergenerational conflict by having students engage critically with works by Virginia Woolf, Eugene O’Neill, and Wes Anderson. The final unit is about craft, where students will be using essays by James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, and Joan Didion as models for their own auto-theoretical explorations. This is an R1A course, meaning that our time together will primarily be devoted to developing our capacities as close readers, writers, and thinkers. Through in-class discussions, workshops, and writing exercises, we will generate a portfolio consisting of several polished pieces of analytical, persuasive, and creative writing.

Requisites

• Satisfaction of the Entry Level Writing Requirement

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills