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Inside the Blue Book English
455a "Most of us are still related to our native fields as the navigator to undiscovered islands in the sea," wrote Henry David Thoreau. "We can any afternoon discover a new fruit there which will surprise us by its beauty or sweetness." Thoreau, to be sure, was a master at conveying a feel for the Concord countryside on which his discoveries took place, and writer Harriet Chessman, whose first novel, Ohio Angels, was praised for its ability to evoke a sense of place, hopes to help students learn that elusive but necessary skill: creating a believable exterior and interior landscape. In this upper-level English course, juniors and seniors tackle the personal essay, a literary form mastered by writers such as Jamaica Kincaid, E.B. White, Eudora Welty, and Annie Dillard. "We read widely," says Chessman, "because I like the idea of students having many literary voices, and a rich variety of approaches, in their heads. But this is primarily a writing workshop." Students are expected to make regular entries in a "place" notebook, complete weekly writing exercises that are critiqued by the group, and craft three longer (more than 1,000 words) essays, each of which will be revised at least once. "I want them to understand, once and for all, that revision is writing," Chessman explains. The novelist also wants the class to learn that the personal is different from the confessional. "This essay form is less about straightforward description than about reflecting on something you've observed in a way that can be quirky, subjective, or whimsical," she notes. Chessman's best writing
has often come out of the "groundlessness and bewilderment" that results from
being in a new place which is hard to read. She has designed many of her assignments
to create a similar sense of dispossession that her students can then use to write
their way back to solid ground. "I want to startle them," she says, "but then
give them the tools to work with authority. They'll carry the habits of attentiveness
they develop with them throughout life."
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Yale
Alumni Magazine, PO Box 1905, New Haven, CT 06509-1905. USA.
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