FICT 38 W — Historical Fiction Workshop: Bringing the Past to the Present
Quarter: Summer
Instructor(s): Deborah Johnson
Date(s): Jun 26—Aug 28
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Thursdays
Class Meeting Time: 12:00—1:00 pm (PT)
Tuition: $1000
Refund Deadline: Jun 28
Unit(s): 2
Enrollment Limit: 18
Status: Open
Quarter: Summer
Day: Thursdays
Duration: 10 weeks
Time: 12:00—1:00 pm (PT)
Date(s): Jun 26—Aug 28
Unit(s): 2
Tuition: $1000
Refund Deadline: Jun 28
Instructor(s): Deborah Johnson
Enrollment Limit: 18
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Open
To paraphrase L.P. Hartley, the past may be a foreign country, but it is country we all love to visit. Recent best-selling novels have found their stories in World War II, pre–Civil Rights Mississippi, and the court of England’s Henry VIII. The historical novel is reaching new heights—and audiences—by finding ways to make issues of the past relevant to readers of the present. In this hands-on course, you will begin researching and writing a historical novel of your own. Our approach will be systematic. For the first few weeks, we will look at what constitutes great work and see how the themes in these novels mirror themes that are still active in our own time.
We will examine books as varied as Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, Philippa Gregory’s The Wise Woman, and Dennis Lehane’s Small Mercies to see how these authors successfully handle plot, theme, place, and characterization. We will discuss what makes these novels work so well and why they remain so pressingly relevant to our time. During this same period, we will employ research and plotting techniques to begin writing the first chapter of our novel. Finally, we will share our chapter(s) in workshop to get feedback on what is working and what isn’t. By the end of the course, you will have completed a chapter of 10–25 pages and have a foundation for the longer work.
We will examine books as varied as Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, Philippa Gregory’s The Wise Woman, and Dennis Lehane’s Small Mercies to see how these authors successfully handle plot, theme, place, and characterization. We will discuss what makes these novels work so well and why they remain so pressingly relevant to our time. During this same period, we will employ research and plotting techniques to begin writing the first chapter of our novel. Finally, we will share our chapter(s) in workshop to get feedback on what is working and what isn’t. By the end of the course, you will have completed a chapter of 10–25 pages and have a foundation for the longer work.
DEBORAH JOHNSON
Author
Deborah Johnson’s novel The Secret of Magic received the 2015 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. Her previous novel, The Air Between Us, received the Mississippi Library Association Award for fiction. She worked in Rome for many years as an editor and translator and as a broadcaster at Vatican Radio. She has recently completed a new novel, Washington and Leigh, a ghost story about the beginnings of rock and roll set in 1950s Mississippi. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Dennis Lehane, Small Mercies (ISBN 978-0062129499)
(Required) Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See (ISBN 978-1668017340)
(Required) Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome (ISBN 978-1508474135)
(Required) Elizabeth George, Write Away (ISBN 978-0060560447)
(Required) Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See (ISBN 978-1668017340)
(Required) Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome (ISBN 978-1508474135)
(Required) Elizabeth George, Write Away (ISBN 978-0060560447)