We are mortal beings. There is as yet no evidence of god. We live in a digital culture. Art is related to the body and to the culture. Art should reflect these things. Brevity rules.

A sustained argument for the excitement and urgency of literary brevity; a rally for compression, concision, and velocity; and a meditation on the brevity of human existence. 

Purchase: LIFE IS SHORT—ART IS SHORTER: IN PRAISE OF BREVITY (edited by David Shields and Elizabeth Cooperman). Read the entire book—all essays, short stories, and prose-poems. Read the commentaries by the editors. Students will be assigned approximately ten 250-word writing exercises, based on the examples and prompts in the book. In class, students will read aloud their work and critique one another’s work. Students will learn about the virtue of brevity, key principles of literary composition, and the many gestures available to the contemporary writer.

 

Prerequisites:

ENGL 283 & ENGL 284