76-495 Other People's Words: The History, Theory, and Practice of Interviews

9 units, Carnegie Mellon University

In literary studies, we usually draw our research from books and articles, or sometimes from documents in archives. But one other way to find out information is from interviews. Historians, anthropologists, and journalists use interviews, albeit in different ways. How might we apply their methods to literary study This course will look at different modes of interviewing. You will also conduct various kinds of interviews yourselves. Thus the course will be a mix between a criticism course and a workshop. Through the semester you will be responsible for conducting and editing one longform interview with a person about art, literature, or another field. In addition, you will develop a project conducting multiple interviews on a topic. Lastly, you will build a portrait or report drawn from one of those projects.

Prerequisites: 76-101 or 76-102 or (76-106 and 76-107) or (76-106 and 76-108) or (76-107 and 76-108)

Offered: Spring 2027

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