Fun With Writing… or, Writing for Weirdos

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2024

Phillip Howze (Department of Theater, Dance, and Media)
First-Year Seminar 64Q 4 credits (spring term)

Writing can be fun. Writing can be weird. By “writing”, we don’t only mean the act of putting pen to paper, or fingers to computer keys to type. Writing is the conscious act of choosing words or texts or images and composing them in such a way to create an intended effect. Yes, writing is a deliberate and emotional process… but not one which has to be necessarily painstaking. What if, first and foremost, writing was fun? This is the question we’ll explore and enact while getting to know our fellow classmates in this generative, art-oriented first-year seminar. We’ll read obscure yet celebrated writers whose work is distinctly wild, unconventional, compassionate, and opaque. In addition, each week we’ll create both individually and together, engaging methods of writing across a variety of forms – from gaming and poetry to food and stage plays – to reacquaint ourselves with the weird joys of what it might mean to craft ourselves creatively, personally, politically, and collaboratively with one another. Come prepared to break the rules.

 

See also: Spring 2024