Short Fiction [Eight Week course, taught online]
This course is a study of selected short stories and longer novellas; it stresses the reading and analysis of representative works to give students an understanding of the craft of fiction. This class is designed to re-introduce students to the elements of fiction: plot, character, setting, point of view, symbol, and style, as they function together to produce meaning in a short story or novella.
Students also write about the stories as a way to discover their own ideas and to enhance their composition and critical thinking skills. Some writing activities are personal responses; some are analytical and interpretive.
Required Texts
The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, 7th Edition
Course Objectives
Analyze and interpret short fiction.
Incorporate the world of the author, the world of the text, and their own world and experiences to produce meaning from works of fiction.
Demonstrate how the basic elements of short fiction -- plot, characterization, setting, point of view, symbolism and style -- work together to produce a story's meaning.
Write response papers, short essays, and an MLA style research paper demonstrating their interpretations of specific short stories.
Schedule
Module One
Writing About Fiction p. xxi - xxix
Poe – “The Fall of the House of Usher” pp. 1264 –1277
Poe – The Philosophy of Composition pp. 1659-1660
Maupassant – “An Adventure in Paris” pp. 1040-1045
Gillman – “The Yellow Wallpaper” pp. 597-608
James - “Greville Fane” pp. 700-712
Crane – “The Blue Hotel” pp.396-416
Crane – Letter to John Northern Hilliard p. 1633
Module Two
Chekhov - “The Lady with the Dog” pp. 284-296
Chekhov – From 2 Letters pp. 1627-1629
Wharton - “Xingu” pp. 1562-1579
Joyce – “The Dead” pp. 745-784
Loomis - Structure and Sympathy in Joyce’s “The Dead” pp.1694-1697
D.H. Lawrence – “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter”pp.839-851
DHL – Why the Novel Matters pp. 1647-1698
Module Three
Hemingway – “Hills Like White Elephants” pp. 661-665
Hemingway – An Interview pp. 1640-1643
Porter – “Flowering Judas” pp. 1298-1307
Porter – An Interview pp. 1660-1663
Faulkner - “A Rose for Emily” pp. 520-527
Faulkner - An Interview pp.1636-1640
Shaw - “Girls in their Summer Dresses” pp. 1333-1339
Welty - “A Worn Path” pp. 1544-1549
Dodd - Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” pp.1687-1688
Welty - An Interview pp. 1668-1669
Module Four
Jackson - “The Lottery” pp. 693-699
Malamud - “Angel Levine” pp. 910-917
I.B. Singer - “Gimpel the Fool” pp.1355-1365
O’Connor – “A Good Man is Hard to Find” pp.1201-1212
O’Connor – The Nature and Aim of Fiction pp. 1658-1659
Baldwin – “Sonny’s Blues” pp. 37-59
Updike – “A & P” pp. 1492-1497
Module Five
Jhabvala – “Passion” pp. 713-725
Garcia Marquez -“The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World” pp. 585-589
Munro - “Mile City, Montana” pp. 1141-1155
Monro – What is Real pp.1654-1657
Gordimer - “A Soldier’s Embrace” pp. 609-619
Carver - “Cathedral” pp. 206-216
Carver – from “On Writing” pp. 1624-1627
Module Six
Dybek - “We Didn’t” pp. 471-479
O’Brien - “The Things They Carried” pp. 1188-1200
Canin - “The Year of Getting to Know Us” pp. 179-191
Mukherjee - “The Management of Grief” pp. 1112-1124
Mukerjee – A Four Hundred Year Old Woman pp. 1652-1654
Module Seven
Tan - “Rules of the Game” pp. 1423-1430
Baxter - “The Disappeared” pp. 96-113
Loh - “My Father’s Chinese Wives” pp. 900-909
Dubus -“The Intruder” pp. 462-470
Hoffman “The Wedding of Snow and Ice” pp. 673-681
Module Eight
Conrad – “A Preface” pp. 1629-1633
James – The Art of Fiction pp. 1643-1645
Tolstoy – What is Art pp. 1665-1667