Introductory description

A module within the MA in Writing, this module leads on from 'Warwick Fiction Workshop (1)', which is a prerequisite.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

1. An introduction to the course
2. pacing character development and plot over a novel's length
3. delivering complex ideas in narrative form
4. the relationship of character to landscape
5. developing characters over a time period
6. planning and managing long narratives
7. early establishment of voice and character
8. developing character
9. sympathetic and unsympathetic characters
10. concept of readers' expectations

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• By the end of the module the student should be able to: have deepened their practical and critical knowledge of the construction of longer fiction in terms of language, genre, form, narrative, character, dialogue and description, and furthered their understanding of representative examples by published writers.
• demonstrate the development of their prose styles employed in constructing short stories to a higher standard in the novella or novel. Some understanding of the impact their work can have on an audience will also be achieved.
• analyse writing sentence by sentence to see how each works in terms of meaning and voice;
• reflect critically on the relationship between theory and practice in creative contexts;
• understand the mental processes involved in creativity, and apply critical analysis to their own work.
• some students will progress to become published authors. For other students, careers in TV, radio, print journalism and teaching will more accessible since these industries require and value people who can write well and expressively on a range of subjects. The final objective of the module will therefore be geared to familiarising students with the literary marketplace most suited to their needs and expertise, especially as applied of the student's own original fiction.

Indicative reading list

Coetzee, J.M., Disgrace (Vintage, 2000)
Crace, Jim, Quarantine (Penguin, 1988)
Johnson, Charles, Middle Passage (Payback Press, 1999)
Rushdie, Salman, The Ground Beneath Her Feet (Vintage, 2000)
Sebald, W.G., The Emigrants (Harvill Press, 1996)
Delillo, Don, Underworld (Picador, 1999)
Roth, Philip, American Pastoral (Vintage, 1998)
Ninh, Bao, The Sorrow of War (Minerva, 1994)
Dominique, Sigaud, Somewhere in a Desert (Phoenix House, 1998)
Gordimer, Nadine, The House Gun (Bloomsbury, 1998)

Books on the practice of contemporary writing:
Lodge, David (ed.) Modern Criticism and Theory (Longman, 1988)
Bradbury, Malcolm, The Modern British Novel (Penguin, 1994)
Josipovici, Gabriel, The World and the Book: A Study of Modern Fiction (Macmillan, 1971)
Todd, Richard, Consuming Fictions: The Booker Prize and Fiction in Britain Today (Bloomsbury, 1996)
Walder, Dennis (ed.) Literature in the Modem World (Oxford University Press, 1990)

Subject specific skills

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Transferable skills

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