Description
Exacting and precise craft is regarded as a great virtue of literature, culminating in tight, structured prose, with emphasis on form and technique. But what of the Dionysian opposite of this Apollonian ideal? What of Federico García Lorca’s duende? What of the wild and impassioned writing of frenzy and ecstasy? This reading-intensive course will look at masterpieces that straddle this border between wildness and craft by such authors as Michael Ondaatje, Anne Carson, Justin Torres, Marguerite Duras, and others. Through discussion we will explore this interplay of frenzy and order and examine what makes pieces of literature urgently and perilously come alive.