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from
Delores' Teacup
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t the University of Missouri-Columbia, I have taught the entire range of courses in creative writing, literature, literary theory, and women's and gender studies at the graduate and undergraduate levels. In all of my courses, I strive to communicate the values of social equality, intellectual curiosity, artistic integrity, and human potential.
he bulk of my teaching responsibilities lie in creative writing, and my pedagogy has developed out of that discipline. My approach is holistic, combining lectures, group work, in-class exercises, invention exercises, directed reading, imitation, collaboration, performance, and workshop. My undergraduate fiction courses, in particular, are highly structured to lay a groundwork for a lifetime of reading and writing rather than to identify and isolate individual talent.
ach semester, I rotate one of four themes: Romance, Adventure, Mystery, or Fantasy. I began this practice when I realized that many of my students read genre fiction; I wanted to find a way to connect their reading experience to the work of the course. Actually, most literary works have some generic ties: thus I teach Kafka in the fantasy course, Alice Munro in the romance course, Katherine Anne Porter in the adventure class. We read approximately six books a semester, usually beginning with a modernist text from the first half of the century and moving up to a recent bestseller, cult favorite, or promising first novel. For each text, I distribute a handout some of the book's key formal and stylistic features; those features then become imitation assignments. Finally, students workshop each assignment in a small group of 4-5 peers, focusing on a checklist of elements to discuss. In this manner, I allow for six or so workshops rather than the standard two a semester, provide immediate feedback, and shift the emphasis from authority to text.
have also added a performance and collaboration element to the course, on the theory that groups will be more effective if they are engaged in creative activity along with critique. One semester, I sent students to the Western Historical Manuscript Collection for bits of text; another time, I had them produce mysteries from the physical props each one brought to class; I have also had great success with contemporary versions of Flannery O'Connor stories. Students use class time to plan their collaborations, then complete their stories by email. Finally, they perform the finished version for the class, an activity which has the effect of breaking down formal barriers and strengthening ties on the basis of shared labor, humor, and dramatic innovation.
raduate seminars, through less structured, proceed along similar lines. I have a different topic each semester. Some recent titles are: Memos for the Millennium, Where You Are, and Modern Manifestos. I always require in-class writing and at least one genre-breaking writing project, such as a self-assigned imitation or a tribute to a literary mentor. One student has published his exercise as a story in a literary magazine, while others have used theirs as springboards for larger projects. In fact, work produced in my class has won the AWP Intro Award; it has appeared in Shenendoah, Quarterly West, Crazy Horse, So To Speak, Black Warrior Review, The Chicago Review, and others. A short story manuscript by Beth Oness, Articles of Faith, sections of which were workshopped in my class, won the 2000 Iowa Prize in Short Fiction and was published by the University of Iowa Press. |
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