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Course Description & Requirements
This course is a creative writing workshop keyed to, but not restricted to, exploring the experience of foreign study through writing about our experiences in Florence, living abroad, and travel. Along with the weekly writing workshops of our own writing, we will also read and discuss texts that focus on Europe and Italy from both the native and foreign perspectives, noting particularly the literary techniques and strategies that various writers have used to express their experiences of Italy. Our class sessions will be divided almost equally between these two activities. One of our two weekly sessions will be devoted to the examination of a text dealing with various American, English, Austrian, French, and Italian authors’ experiences of Italy. These texts will provide us with a forum for discussing the literary expression of place and one’s relationship to those places as well as showcasing various forms, genres, and literary techniques that we might find useful in the formulation of our own texts. The readings will also provide us with models for weekly writing assignments that will ward off any writer’s block. In these classes we will also listen to various authors reading their texts aloud and consider the aesthetics of performance. (I also run a monthly Open Mic series here in Florence on the first Wednesday of every month and I highly encourage you to attend and to read!)
The second of our weekly class sessions will function as a writer’s workshop: each student will present their own textual productions orally (accompanied by copies for everyone) to the group for reactions, critique, and suggestions for revision. The weekly writing assignments will be particularly useful for beginners but should also help more experienced writers in an attempt to goad them into trying new techniques based on the weekly readings. You will of course be absolutely free to write about things other than the foreign experience for the workshops—especially if you have a particular project in mind. Our ultimate goal will be to produce a finalized, substantial text—or series of short texts—suitable for performance and/or publication in the literary world beyond this class.
Grading
Your final grade will represent the average of three separate grades for three different categories of text production and participation in this course.
- You will be graded on the texts that you produce—those presented during the workshop sessions, anything you hand in to me privately, as well as the weekly assignments—not only on their overall number but how well they reflect a consistent effort to move ahead with your writing, to improve and diversify it.
- You will be graded on how well you use and participate in both the workshop and reading sessions—how many texts you present, how well you give and take criticism, the success of your re-writes and your contribution to the discussions on others’ readings and performances. This grade will also be affected by your attendance.
- You will be graded on your final project—its quality, polish, and overall success.
NOTE: I will not be able to give a passing grade to students who fail to participate regularly in the workshops, produce considerably fewer texts than the class average or are absent 5 or more times (as per SACI regulations).
Schedule
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Week 1 |
Monday, September 9 Wednesday, September 11 |
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Week 2 |
Monday, September 16 Tuesday, September 17 Wednesday, September 18 |
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Week 3 |
Monday, September 23 Wednesday, September 25 |
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Week 4 |
Monday, September 30 Tuesday, October 1 Wednesday, October 2 |
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Week 5 |
Monday, October 7 Wednesday, October 9 |
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Week 6 |
Monday, October 14 Tuesday, October 15 Wednesday, October 16 |
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Week 7 |
Monday, October 21 Wednesday, October 23 |
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Week 8 |
MIDTERM BREAK (October 26 - November 3) |
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Week 9 |
Monday, November 4 Tuesday, November 5 Wednesday, November 6 |
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Week 10 |
Monday, November 11 Wednesday, November 13 |
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Week 11 |
Monday, November 18 Tuesday, November 19 Wednesday, November 20 |
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Week 12 |
Monday, November 25 Wednesday, November 27 |
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Week 13 |
Monday, December 2 Tuesday, December 3 Wednesday, December 4 |
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Week 14 |
Monday, December 9 Wednesday, December 11 |
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Week 15 |
Monday, December 16 Tuesday, December 17 Wednesday, December 18 Friday, December 20 - 7 pm: Student presentations at final SACI end-of-term party (Clayton Hubbs Lecture Hall - Palazzo dei Cartelloni) |
Readings
The readings are available in a course packet for purchase at Copisteria X, Via San Gallo, 72red. Tel. 055-215367.
General Safety & Emergency Instructions
Click here for a pdf of SACI's General Safety & Emergency Instructions.