Library faculty are offering two courses this January. A new course jointly taught by Anna Hulseberg and Julie Gilbert is Fact and Fiction (NDL 109). “In this course students will explore the relationship between fact and fiction in the experience of the reader and the writer. We will commence with an investigation into the psychology of reading and apply this framework to interactions with course readings. We will read works of fiction, explore the related historical record, and further consider the ethical implications of the often blurry relationship between fiction and truth through fieldwork. The term will culminate in the investigation of an historical event and the production and presentation of a creative work related to that event.”
Barbara Fister will teach Books & Culture (NDL 105): “To read the news, you would think books and readers are on the brink of extinction. The National Endowment for the Arts warns that reading is in precipitous decline and numerous ‘experts’ say people in their teens and twenties have no interest in anything that isn’t high tech. Yet more books are being published than ever before and the number of people using public libraries is at an all-time high. This course will explore books in contemporary culture, the book industry from writers to readers, the intellectual history of reading, and the future of the book.”
Stay tuned for news of our Spring course offerings . . .