“Character Development” — Third Session of the Course “Theory and Practice of Experimental Writing. Block II”

“Character Development” — Third Session of the Course “Theory and Practice of Experimental Writing. Block II”

In his poetic essay “Self-Portrait in the Study,” philosopher Giorgio Agamben attempts to answer a question: What remains of the sequence of days and years we have lived — following a need whose logic we still cannot decipher, yet at the same time living as chance dictated?

Drawing on Agamben’s reflections — and on our own — we will work on creating character images. Together we will explore how a character’s personality and subjectivity are reflected across different layers of a literary work.

As a writing practice, participants will try to create a character portrait based on a photograph or another image of their workspace/study. To shape the inner world of the character, we suggest turning to four classic approaches:

• How might they speak? (write a monologue or dialogue)

• What do they do? (write an everyday life scene)

• What do they fear? (describe thoughts and inner anxieties)

• What do they cherish? (describe a childhood memory or a fantasy)