Link to Course Plan Google Doc
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” – Neil Gaiman“Storytelling is more than just a tool. It is beyond any implement–almost a requirement of being alive. Insofar as it has anything to offer, it generates fresh depth and breadth of perception. It enables us to surmount a humdrum world where everything makes sense and is logical, and get to that realm where deeper meaning is revealed.” – Steve Denning“Story conveys truth, and the truth conveyed by story goes beyond that of mere facts.” – Erika RS
What makes a story true? Can something be true without being real? Especially as it pertains to storytelling, where do we draw the line between fact and fiction, truth and falsehood? Why does the phrase “based on a true story” at the beginning of a film mean so much to an audience? What does it really mean to believe in a story?
In this course, we will explore how the fictional can be “true” beyond the matter of fact. This semester-long study of narrative truth will begin with Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X to discover the power of verity through self-expression and personal identity. From there, we will begin to blur the lines between fact and fiction with Helena Maria Viramontes and Tim O’Brien’s short stories, as the worlds of magical realism and metafiction guide us on a search for “Truths with a capital T.” As a poignantly culminating blend of personal truth and collective truth, Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close will urge us to uncover both the role of narration and memory in truth-telling and the utility of storytelling as a means of memorialization. These works of verse poetry, postmodern metafiction, and collage bildungsroman will afford us an expansive view of what it really means for fictional stories to be constructed in the pursuit of Truth. Throughout the semester, students will create their own works of poetry, short story, and pastiche collage. Students will also have the opportunity to participate in peer-review workshops and literary analysis seminars/discussions.
As a famous tweet reads: “Haha, what a wicked and ironic comment bro. Now try saying something true and beautiful.” Amidst Gen-Z’s disaffected and disillusioned digital age, this course will challenge students not only to seek those sublime glimmers of eternal truth in the texts, but also to create “something true and beautiful” out of their own stories.
Primary Texts:
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, novel-in-verse
“The Moths” by Helena Maria Viramontes, short story
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, novel/collection of short stories
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, pastiche novel
Potential Texts for Further Exploration:
Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje, (fictionalized) memoir
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, novel
Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, novella
Lord of the Flies by William Golding, novel;
Night by Elie Wiesel, memoir
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, novel/film
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahir, novel
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