ENG 328 Literary Scandals
Why is it very important to stay on the good side of your editor? What possibilities are there when a pen name is involved? Is it ethical to use your friends' lives as writing material inspiration? Is it a homage, or is it plagiarism? How factual does "based on a true story" need to be? These are some of the questions we will investigate in this course by adopting a material studies approach to learning. This means we will read literature involved in some of these scandals (fiction and nonfiction/creative nonfiction) along with contextual primary texts such as media coverage, author correspondence, and archival relics (digital and material). Students should prepare to complete an independent research project, as well as shorter reflective and/or methodological written essays.