2021 – Spring

Journalism as Literature

Course Number: JOUR-GA 1023.002

Day & Time: Tuesday, 1:00pm-4:00pm [Online]

Location: Online

One of the most interesting developments of the past half-century or so has been the rise of a breed of journalists-in-novelists’-clothing who use the techniques of literature to tell true stories. But is blurring the boundary between fiction and nonfiction always a good thing? Does it make several of the most famous works of this type unreliable? We will look at some of the key texts of this new, or newish, form, from Tom Wolfe and George Plimpton by way of Joan Didion and Ryszard Kapuscinski to Larissa MacFarquhar and the 2015 Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich.

Course Schedule by Week:

2/2 GAY TALESE – THE GAY TALESE READER
2/9 LILLIAN ROSS – PICTURE
2/16 NORMAN MAILER – ARMIES OF THE NIGHT
2/23 TRUMAN CAPOTE – IN COLD BLOOD
3/2 RYSZARD KAPUSCINSKI – THE EMPEROR
3/9 MICHAEL HERR – DISPATCHES
3/16 KATHERINE BOO – BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS
3/23 SUKETU MEHTA – MAXIMUM CITY
3/30 SVETLANA ALEXIEVICH – VOICES FROM CHERNOBYL
4/6 JANINE DI GIOVANNI – THE MORNING THEY CAME FOR US
4/13 ISABEL WILKERSON, THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS
4/20 JOHN EDGAR WIDEMAN, WRITING TO SAVE A LIFE
4/27 DANIEL DEFOE, JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR
5/4 GENERAL CONCLUDING DISCUSSION OF THE COURSE

*PLEASE NOTE: This course is listed under the heading “Journalistic Tradition” in Albert*