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NOR-1113: Study for creative writers Work Load
60 credits (ECTS) | Type of course
Theoretical subject. | Level of course/Year of study
Normally first or second year. | Language of instruction
Norwegian | Examination semester
Spring
| Objectives
The objective of the course is to develop the writing skills of the individual student when it comes to the field of fiction. Through their own text production and studies of the texts of others, the students'' competence in analysing the weak and strong points of texts will be strengthened, with the aim of increasing the capacity of each student to evaluate and edit their own linguistic works of art. The theoretical component will provide an increased understanding of literary structures. | Contents
The creative writing programme is different from other studies of the humanities and must be compared to education in other forms of art offered at college level in Norway and at universities in countries like Sweden, Germany, England and the USA. The objective of the programme is to provide opportunities in the region for students who wish to develop their creative writing skills.
The aim of the course is to develop the writing skills of each individual student through boldness and experimentation, increasing the students'' sense of quality and their ability to evaluate through intensive studies of texts, and providing knowledge of the devices of literary language, of the recent development of Norwegian and Northern Norwegian literature, and of the literary system in Norway.
The course is divided into a skills component and a knowledge component.
The skills component consists of the students'' own production of fictional texts based on writing assignments given both during and between the student meetings. In addition, active participation in the text workshop is required.
The text workshop constitutes the core of the course. Students are to present their own work to their fellow students in small groups, and they will have their own work discussed in plenum, both by fellow students, the teachers of the course, and different guest writers who are invited to the different meetings.
The guest readers constitute a significant pedagogical element in the course in order to demonstrate the diversity not only of text design and writer strategies, but also of different readings and evaluations of the same texts, which is meant to counter trend formation, uniformity, and simplification of literary complexity.
In addition to Norwegian and Nordic writers, the students will also meet representatives from the literary institution (publishing directors, critics, representatives from different writers'' organizations).
The knowledge component will provide an overview of important tendencies in modern literature and literary understanding. The studies will be based on work studies of a selection of Nordic novels, short stories, poems, and drama, as well as articles about literary theory, genre theory, and literary analysis. Insight into and the ability to use simple concepts for the description of the distinctive character of literary texts will be required. Teaching in the knowledge component will consist of lectures and seminars. | Form of teaching
Teaching will be given in the form of lectures and seminars, which are meant to support the text workshop where writing assignments are given and where newly written text are commented on in groups and in plenum. In addition, individual supervision is given.
Students are also strongly advised to make use of the creative group pressure that will arise in such a student group to write as much as possible (ideally, much more than the required pages of text) in the course of the academic year. For this reason, the course starts in June rather than in August.
The course is based on meetings, making it possible to live outside of Tromsø. Teaching is distributed over two semesters with 7 weekend meetings (3 in the autumn, 4 in the spring) and two week-long meetings (5 days at the beginning of each semester).
In the autumn, the students have to write assignments in different genres to make them explore different forms of expression and maybe discover unknown aspects of their own writing skills. In the spring semester, the students are then given the responsibility for their own writing between meetings, by formulating a writing project and submitting parts of it before each meeting. | Exam and assessment
The examination consists of two parts:
1. The submission of a "completed" text selection of 30-40 pages, produced in the course of the year of studies.
2. If the text selection is assessed as passed, the student is allowed to take the oral examination, where the knowledge of the materials of teaching is tested.
Only the assessment pass/fail is given. In order to get the course accepted as 60 ECTS, the student must pass both parts of the examination. | Contact person/lecturer
Professor Henning Howlid Wærp
E-mail: Henning.Waerp@hum.uit.no
Tel. +47 776 44 235 | Recommended reading/syllabus
Available on request |
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