Stevenson University has once again conjured up a fall semester course that has students wanting to go to class. In the “Stranger than Fiction” course, students are given the opportunity to read, analyze, and present their findings on pieces ranging from Barbara Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed” to Gay Talese’s “Frank Sinatra has a Cold.”
The course syllabus states that students will be able to use critical theory, write with integrity, and solve problems appropriate to the genre study. These are all great things to leave a course with, but I am afraid that the course description is lacking one very important message.
The course also offers a unique perspective to students, allowing them to know that literature is not just a 300-page novel given to them by a professor to read and comprehend. Literary journalism is an underrated resource rarely offered to college students as an option. It helps to understand real world problems, however, and allows us to expand not just as readers, but also as writers.
This course is a prime example of why Stevenson University’s English Department is an up and coming force to be reckoned with. Stevenson not only offers many different varieties to its English students, but it also allows them to grow within their major and helps them to decide what they truly want to do with their future. With that the only question I have for you is as follows: Why didn’t you take this course?