The MFA Program for Writers recently celebrated its annual summer residency on the lush and verdant Warren Wilson Campus in Swannanoa, North Carolina. The residency featured inspiring lectures and classes from both faculty and graduating students. And writers and readers can access the wonderful craft discussions and lectures from the MFA Program for Writers faculty online here. Rita Banerjee’s Opening Lecture, “Rasa Theory: Cultivating Emotion & Suspense in Poetry & Fiction,” explores Bharata’s development of rasa theory and investigates how rasa theory can function as an approach to narrative design, lyricism, reader response, and revision. Plato argues that human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. But in the Nāṭyaśāstra (ca. 200 BCE), Bharata demonstrates that emotion is the origin of all human psychology, desire, intrigue, and action.
The Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers store features a rich archive of faculty lectures and craft discussions from January 1992 – July 2023, and can be accessed here: https://www.wwcmfa.org/store/
Rita Banerjee 