Peter Turchi: I See What You’re Saying: Images and Motifs in Fiction (July 2021)

“As fiction writers,” says Peter Turchi, “one of the smartest things we can do is steal from poets.” In this lecture, Turchi talks not so much about single images, but about patterns of images, or motifs, and some of the ways they can serve a story or novel, both subtly and overtly. Texts discussed include Jai Chakrabarti’s “A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness,” Guy Vanderhaeghe’s “The Jimi Hendrix Experience,” Toni Morrison’s A Mercy, and Richard Powers’ The Overstory.