Unidade Curricular | Course Unit

Inglês: Escrita Criativa (C2)

 

Código da Unidade Curricular | Course ID

ENG3.12275

 

ECTS | Credits

6

 

Ciclo de Estudos | Level

1

 

Semestre | Semester

1

 

Docente(s) | Instructor(s)

Bernardo Manzoni Palmeirim

 

Língua de ensino | Language of instruction

Inglês

 

Programa (na língua de ensino) | Course description (in language of instruction)

Throughout this course, students will have to read various texts in English and complete a variety of writing exercises, which will prepare them for writing their own short-short stories (aka ‘flash fiction’). We’ll discuss a selection of short stories and flash fiction and engage with those as well as a variety of other source materials (drafts, encyclopaedia entries, film, graphic novels and podcasts). The main goal will be to analyse the usage of different narrative techniques and fictional structures, and then creatively appropriate them. Accordingly, exercises shall, as a rule, be divided into two phases: 1) reading, analysis and discussion of a story to see how a given narrative technique or element (character, plot, setting, mood, etc.) is put to work there; 2) applying that element or technique in a practical creative writing exercise. Students will have to complete not only individual but also group assignments.

 

Avaliação (na língua de ensino) | Grading and Assessment (in language of instruction)

Students will have to write 2 flash fiction pieces. Part of the course will therefore focus on show/tell and compression, and other theoretical specifics of flash fiction. We’ll think about how storytelling works by reading authors’ stories carefully, and work on developing craftsmanship by critically discussing colleagues’ stories. Students will present one of their stories orally to the class, offering a rehearsed reading, explanation of the creative process and of the crafting of narrative elements, and a response to questions from the class and teacher. The test will consist in a comparison/contrast essay on the course reading materials (a collection of short stories). Groups will present a podcast episode: the group shall receive an overall mark; individual marks will gravitate around this mark.

 

Short story 1 (inc. oral presentation)                                   25%

Short story 2                                                                             25%

One written test (essay)                                                    25%

Group assignment (Radiolab podcast episode)                  10%

Active Attendance                                                                    15%


Submissions: If you submit work to be marked after the deadline, 1 mark will be deducted for each day the work is late. If you submit your work more than 5 days late, your work will not be marked and it will be graded as zero. Assignments must be printed double-spaced and delivered in class AND uploaded to moodle.

 

Bibliografia (selection) | Readings (selection)

Course materials included in “Student’s Course Book”, to be acquired at the ‘Reprografia Vermelha’ photocopy store (basement of main building)

Galef, David. Brevity: A Flash Fiction Handbook. Columbia: Columbia UP, 2016.

Myszor, Frank. The Modern Short Story. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001.

Earnshaw, Steven. Handbook of Creative Writing, The Second Edition. 2nd ed. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2014.

Kane, Thomas. The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing. New York: OUP, 1988.