Fall 2004

T C 325 • Literary Journalism – W

Course Description

This course is a study of reportage, and in one case biography, that rises to literature on subjects that have in common violence and its consequences. The works provide witness, reconstruction and imaginative sympathy on and about matters of great emotion and intensity, and weigh actions in their private and public crucibles.

About the Professor Steven Isenberg, an adjunct professor of humanities here since last fall, has been a newspaper publisher, chief of staff to the mayor of New York, a litigator, and interim president of a university. Over the last few years, he has taught at Yale, Berkeley, Davidson, Polytechnic (Brooklyn), and the New School. He is on the advisory council of the Harry Ransom Center. He did his BA at the University of California at Berkeley and his BA, MA at Worcester College, Oxford, all in English literature and his J.D. at Yale Law School. He lives in New York City, but now owns cowboy boots.

Texts

Dispatches, Michael Herr A Season of Blood, Fergal Keane Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell In Cold Blood, Truman Capote The Executioner's Song, Norman Mailer King of the World, David Remnick Additional Essays will be assigned on boxing

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