Aims of the course
- To introduce participants to the genre of creative non-fiction known as the lyric essay.
- To provide students with the opportunity to practise techniques and try out different forms.
- To offer a first overview of the way the genre is used as a political tool and to express aspects of identity.
Course content overview
- The lyric essay was coined by the editors of the Seneca Review in 1997, as a way of defining the kind of short-form creative non-fiction they had begun to publish in the journal.
- Over the last two decades, the lyric essay has grown in popularity among writers and readers in the US and interest is growing in the rest of the English-speaking world.
- It can be distinguished from other types of creative non-fiction by its emphasis on form, formal innovation and attention to the physical properties of language. In this way, its composition and its effect on the reader come closer to poetry than to other kinds of prose.
- The ‘lyric’ in lyric essay refers to the centrality of the author’s particular voice, perspective and subjective or experiential truth. This is another characteristic that distinguishes it from other forms of non-fiction such as journalism or academic writing.
- After a first week, in which participants are introduced to the genre and these distinguishing characteristics are explained, they will spend the course learning about some of the many possibilities it offers in terms of form and subject matter e.g. the ‘braided essay’, the ‘hermit crab essay’, essay as commentary or ‘erasure’ memoir, place, political activism and so on.
- Participants will have set reading each week, which will be discussed in the tutor presentations, and which they will be able to discuss further on a forum on the VLE.
- Participants will also have the opportunity to do an activity each week, and can post the results on a separate forum, where they will receive feedback from the tutor and be able to post feedback on each other’s work.
Schedule (this course is completed entirely online)
Orientation Week: 11-17 April 2022
Teaching Weeks: 18 April-22 May 2022
Feedback Week: 23-29 May 2022
Teaching Week 1 - What is the lyric essay?
Participants will be introduced to the concept of the lyric essay, its history, its scope and what distinguishes it from other prose forms.
Using published essays as examples, participants will work on an exercise which will enable them to generate subject material for essays through association, and organise this material as a series of fragments.
Learning outcomes
By studying this week the participants should have:
- Acquired an understanding of what distinguishes the lyric essay from other prose forms.
- Acquired a sense of the scope of the form in terms of technique and subject matter.
- Practised generating and presenting material through techniques of association and the use of the fragment form.
Teaching Week 2 - Braiding
This week, we will concentrate on the technique of ‘braiding’, whereby different topics and/or narrated episodes can be woven together to create a richly-textured essay.
Participants will read and discuss two examples of braided essays, which the tutor will explore during the presentation.
Participants will then experiment with writing their own braided essays.
Learning outcomes
By studying this week the participants should have:
- Gained an understanding of the ‘braiding’ technique, and the ability to identify its use in an essay.
- Demonstrate their understanding of the technique by producing a short piece of work of their own.
Teaching Week 3 - Hermit Crab
This week, participants will be introduced to the ‘hermit crab’ essay, in which the writer uses a pre-existing form as a structure for their material.
Participants will discuss examples of hermit crab essays, which will be featured in this week’s presentation.
Participants will take part in an activity designed to enable them to produce their first hermit crab essay.
Learning outcomes
By studying this week the participants should have:
- Gained an understanding of what is meant by the term ‘hermit crab essay’.
- Demonstrated this understanding by producing a first hermit crab essay.
Teaching Week 4 - Collage
Building on the work of the previous three weeks, we will look at lyric essays which use a range of different techniques and registers side by side to create a collage effect.
Participants will read and discuss examples of works which involve collage or ‘assemblage’, which will be featured in this week’s presentation.
Participants will then take part in an exercise which will enable them to explore the collage form.
Learning outcomes
By studying this week the participants should have:
- A sense of how collage techniques can be used to build lyric essays.
- Demonstrate the ability to use this technique through their participation in a set exercise.
Teaching Week 5 - Notes, margins, and erasures
This week, we will look at lyric essays which are respond to, comment on, or subvert other texts, through techniques such as annotation and erasure.
As a related topic, we will consider the political uses of the lyric essay.
Participants will take part in an exercise in which they annotate, partially erase of otherwise ‘speak back’ to a text of their choice.
Learning outcomes
By studying this week the participants should have:
- An understanding of the range of techniques which can be used to bring a lyric essay into dialogue with another text.
- Demonstrated the ability to use these techniques in relation to a text of their choice, by producing their own piece of work.
Each week of an online course is roughly equivalent to 2-3 hours of classroom time. On top of this, participants should expect to spend roughly 2-3 hours reading material, etc., although this will vary from person to person.
While they have a specific start and end date and will follow a weekly schedule (for example, week 1 will cover topic A, week 2 will cover topic B), our tutor-led online courses are designed to be flexible and as such would normally not require participants to be online for a specific day of the week or time of the day (although some tutors may try to schedule times where participants can be online together for web seminars, which will be recorded so that those who are unable to be online at certain times are able to access material).
Virtual Learning Environment
Unless otherwise stated, all course material will be posted on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) so that they can be accessed at any time throughout the duration of the course and interaction with your tutor and fellow participants will take place through a variety of different ways which will allow for both synchronous and asynchronous learning (discussion boards etc).
Certificate of participation
A Certificate of Participation will be awarded to participants who contribute constructively to weekly discussions and exercises/assignments for the duration of the course.
