university of hawaii phd creative writing

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Graduate Division

Graduate Division provides opportunities for further study, research and professional training to students who have earned a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution of higher learning. All of the graduate programs at UH Mānoa apply rigorous academic standards. Special emphasis is placed on the cultivation of scholarly attitudes and methods of research and creative activity.

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Grad Writing Workshop: Fiction: Managing Focalization, POV and Perspective in Prose Fiction

ENG 613C (001): Graduate Writing Workshop: Fiction

Managing Focalization, POV and Perspective in Prose Fiction

This class is an introduction to focalization, POV and perspective and the craft and techniques of writing fiction with which these terms are associated. Novels and short stories (fiction) do what they do in a variety of ways, but chief among them is the manipulation of what is variously referred to as focalization (in narrative theory), POV (or point of view, more traditionally), and perspective . These three terms don’t mean quite the same but they are related in that they help us understand both the development of characters in stories and aspects of the organization of the story in which these characters are presented to the reader (that is, how the story is told). By understanding and deploying well the story-telling practices identified by these terms, a writer can learn to develop vivid characters and present their story in compelling ways, and thus to create effective and powerful narratives. By the end of the semester, this class aims to equip students with a thorough knowledge of these three terms and the story-telling they make possible.

At the same time, the class does not presume extensive prior experience in writing fiction. For students fresh to fiction writing, the class aims to build foundational skills through a focus on the basic dimensions of fictional world building identified by the three terms. Throughout the semester, we will situate writing techniques emerging out of these terms in relation to other aspects of story-telling and fictional world-building such as plotting and description. For more advanced students, the class will be an opportunity to deepen and refine writing skills and to experiment.

The work of the course will be done through a combination of reading and writing.

Required Texts:

The reading will include both analytical pieces by writers and critics (mostly provided as PDFs via Laulima) and examples of short stories and novels. The analytical pieces (by E. M. Forster, Mikhail Bakhtin, Gerard Genette, Toni Morrison, Ursula Le Guin, Salman Rushdie and others) will help us better understand the three terms at the heart of the class and the techniques associated with them. We will then take that knowledge to short stories and novels in an endeavor to further refine our understanding based on what writers actually do.

Texts not on Laulima–

Christopher Castellani, The Art of Perspective: Who Tells the Story

Sofia Samatar, The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain (novella)

Manuel Puig, Kiss of the Spider Woman (novel)

Daniel Halpern, The Art of the Tale: An International Anthology of Short Stories

Assignments

The writing will include short exercises meant to develop techniques that we are exploring (4-5), short reflections on the analytical pieces (3-4), short stories that will go through a drafting process and will be workshopped (2), and editorial letters on classmates’ writing (2). There will also be required but ungraded online posts, shared with the class as a whole, on the assigned short stories and longer works.

Student Learning Outcomes

Students will—

Develop an understanding of creative techniques in relation to Fiction

Develop the ability to map, historicize, and contextualize the history and craft of writing Fiction

Develop advanced creative writing skills for publication

Develop an understanding of Creative Writing as a field

Develop an understanding of the discipline of English and its relationship to other disciplines

Faculty and Staff

ENG KUY Meeting room Sign-up Sheet

Contact us:

1733 Donaghho Road

Kuykendall 402

Honolulu, HI 96822

(808) 956-7619

[email protected]