Narrative Journalism
Kinsale, Co Cork
Running from Oct 2 2012 (ten weeks)
This class will aim to interrogate and understand the art and practice of what is known alternatively as ‘long-form journalism’, ‘narrative journalism’, or even, ‘narrative non fiction’.
In some ways, these different descriptions of what is not exactly journalism, or indeed, not exactly literature, but some form of hybrid version of the two, understate the difficulty of defining this particular kind of writing, which is probably most well-developed today within the pages of the great US periodicals, such as the New Yorker, and Harper’s, but which also hearkens back to the non-fiction writing of authors such as George Orwell, Norman Mailer, Truman Capote and WG Sebald.
Indeed, this form of writing is so broad that it eschews easy definitions. It can incorporate areas such as the essay, and the personal narrative, and even some kinds of travel writing. Meanwhile it also allows space for the kind of slow, painstaking research that might be undertaken by a professional journalist, or an academic, while the writing of a narrative non-fiction piece might be equally slow, and equally painstaking, taking weeks and even months to fully develop.
What narrative non-fiction is most definitely not, however, is fiction, even if it adopts a myriad of the techniques employed in writing fiction: narrative voice, characters and character development, attention to detail, description, montage, scenes and story.
Instead, narrative journalists, in the way of the documentary maker, look resolutely outward: at the world, or at people’s experience within the world, and attempt to formulate a response to that world through the medium of writing, without resorting to the powers of the imagination. Compare perhaps a narrative journalist to a sculptor, who starts with a block of stone at which to chip away, rather than to an imaginative painter who starts with a blank canvas, onto which he or she places layers of paint.
Over a ten-week period, starting on October 2 2012, we will consider the craft of the long-form journalistic essay. We will look at the masters of the form, including writers such as George Orwell, Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Martha Gellhorn, John McPhee, James Agee, and others. We will also consider the development of a piece of long-form writing from start to finished product, we will discuss subjects and themes, writing style and approach, and we will consider the markets (in Ireland and elsewhere) for this kind of writing.
This course is for those who like to write and who like to write thoughtfully, no matter what the medium. Students can also expect to actively begin involvement in the generation and crafting of a piece of long-form narrative writing, one that could conceivably be published in the real world.
Bio:
Rachel Andrews writes long-form narrative journalism for the Dublin Review and elsewhere. She is a former journalist and theatre critic with the Sunday Tribune newspaper and has broadcast with RTE Radio 1 and BBC Radio 4. She teaches journalism and literature at Griffith College Cork and UCC.
Any queries can be emailed to: [email protected]
Start date: October 2, 2012
Tuesday nights 7-9pm
Venue: Kinsale, Co Cork
Price for 10 week course: 200 euro. For details on how to pay, please contact [email protected]