David Haynes: Novels from the Ground Up (July 2012)

In this class, David Haynes examines some of the formal aspects of the novel. Using Ernest J. Gaines’s A Lesson before Dying as a blueprint for long works of fiction, Haynes identifies what is needed to start a novel’s engine and what’s needed to maintain narrative momentum. Haynes gives special attention to the ways in which a novel’s opening establishes its terms and shape.