English 609: Indiana Writing Project

For Indiana Writing Project's Invitational Summer Institute, please visit the IWP website.

English 650: Seminar in Literature

Prof. Robert Habich
Summer 1: June 2 - June 13
M-F 8:30 AM - 1:00 PM

Workshop in American Literary Biography

How do we write about writers—and can authors' lives help us to understand their work? This two-week workshop is an examination of the theory, history, and practice of American literary biography, including its use and misuse as an interpretive and pedagogical tool. Students will acquire hands-on experience in evaluating literary biographies and experiment with ways to apply authors' lives to the interpretation of their works. This workshop will stress frequent student reports on readings, practical applications for classroom teaching, and analysis of examples.

Activities include lectures, class discussions, reports, and group work. Assignments: in addition to the reading, class participation, and attendance, each student will present several short reports to the class and write two short (5-page) essays, one a critical review of a literary biography, the other an application of an author's life to the teaching of her work. Contact Dr. Habich with questions at rhabich@bsu.edu.