Baret
Magarian specializes in teaching creative writing and travel writing in
Florence. He obtained his PhD from the University of Durham, which was on the indeterminacy
of Shelley's poetry. He has published articles from his doctorate in The Keats-Shelley Review. He has also
published book reviews, features and articles in all the British broadsheets
and fiction in Panurge magazine. In
Florence he lectures at American universities and occasionally gives guitar
concerts. He recently participated in the Gonzaga in Florence conference ‘On
the Imaginary' and gave a paper entitled, ‘Reconfiguring the World: the Alchemy
of Fiction', which analysed novels by Kafka, Fowles and Murakami. He is
currently working on a thriller set in Lisbon, Berlin, and Florence and has another
novel with agents in London. He has co-written an original screenplay and
directed theatre for the Edinburgh and London fringes.
Course Descriptions
Creative Writing (ENGL 250) The course is intended to act as a springboard for the students' own creativity. Creativity is of course a notoriously vexed issue: where do its roots lie? Is it consistent or fleeting? Of all the arts writing is perhaps the one which is most slippery and challenging given that language is itself a construction, often a highly
imperfect one. But within language's imperfections the writer is free to find
his or her own stylistic universe. By exploring and studying literary texts and
coming to grips with narrative techniques of fiction the course will delineate
the tools of the creative writer. Writing is a craft and the aim will be to analyze
techniques and pass them on to the student so that his or her work will gain in
power, originality and accomplishment. There will also be an emphasis on
reading work aloud and actively and constructively criticizing students' work.
It should be stressed that this course will be challenging in many ways. In
point of fact the student will often be required to look deep within his or her
own self in order to fully utilize their creativity. This can be a uniquely
enriching and profound experience. But above all to take a creative writing
course is to embark on a journey into self and to probe into the secrets and
techniques of great writing. It should also perhaps be stressed that the course
is ultimately about the production of art, not entertainment.
The Writing Traveler(ENGL 303) This is a course
tailor-made for the student who comes to Italy and wishes to preserve something
of his experiences here in journal form. Thus, whilst having its origins in the
strictly personal it will ultimately outsoar this rather subjective frame by
incorporating some of the elements of formal travel writing, memoir and the
essay, attempting to give the student techniques with which to enrich, and
structure, his work. This will be achieved, partly by studying classic
travelogues and observational texts, as listed below, and partly by instruction
and lecture from myself. I would also hope ideally to be able to forge a link
between a personal, subjective experience and its evocation and a larger, more
penetrating truth. Thus on some level the course would also seek to draw
philosophical meaning out of the kind of social encounters and situations found
whilst traveling. This course will
ultimately also develop into a workshop in which students can read and critique
each other's work. The instruction will cover strategies for some elements of creative writing and focus on the rich
subjects and themes provided by our travels here. While this course requires a
lot of writing, the writing will issue out of the experiences afforded by life
in Italy and the various GIF weekend and
cultural trips, and much of the drafting will occur within journal pages during
travel. The syllabus, including reading and writing assignments, will be
adapted as necessary to circumstances that arise in Florence.
Teaching Methodology The lectures are multifaceted
and draw heavily on the students' own experiences and contributions. Some space
is devoted to the analysis of seminal texts and travelogues, with the
employment of close reading. In turn various techniques are taught: the
building of suspense, the resolution of storylines, the creation of atmosphere.
Fiction is broken down into its component parts: narrative, plot, character,
style, theme, and meaning. The classes employ workshops and students read aloud
weekly assignments and critique each other constructively. Role play, games,
imagination exercises, music and art are also used. The courses offer both
academic and personal approaches to writing but above all stress the individual
student's voice and the discovery of a unique way of seeing the world and channeling
such perceptions into original prose creations.
