HUSL 6308 Rethinking the Short Story Syllabus
readings in Pickering,
Fiction 100
(12
th
ed)*.
+ “Reader‟s Guide to the Short Story
May,
The New Short Story Theories
Lohafer,
Coming to Terms with the Short Story
(some copies available at Off-Campus Books; others available from Amazon.com) articles / chapters on e-reserve at McDermott Library *student-instructor may choose stories not assigned to a particular topic or a story not in
Fiction 100
, provided that copies are provided a week in advance.
Class Date Topics, Instructor, Readings 1.
1/11 Introduction Elements and Structure of the Short Story 2.
1/18 Theme vs. Meaning
instructor: M. Cohen story:
Mansfield, “The Fly” (packet)
Lessing, “Wine”
Crane, “The Blue Hotel”
readings:
“Theme” (“Reader‟s Guide”)
textbook
definitions of “theme” (packet or handout
)
Flannery O‟Connor on theme (packet)
3.
1/25 Enlargements of Meanings: Symbol and Allegory
instructor: story:
Porter, “The Grave”
Ellison, “King of the Bingo Game”
Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown”
Kafka, “The Hunger Artist” (packet)
readings:
“Symbol and Allegory” (“Reader‟s Guide”)
traditional symbolic associations and archetypes in literature (packet)
4.
2/01 Structure 1: Narrative Direction, Openings, Development
instructor:
story:
Adams, “Roses, Rhododendron”
(packet)
Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily”
readings:
“Plot” (“Reader‟s Guide”)
“A Rose for Emily”: plot sequences (packet)
“Getting into the Story” (Lohafer)
“Getting through the Story” (Lohafer)
5. 2/08 Structure 2: Endings
instructor: story:
Chopin, “The Storm”
Jackson, “The Lottery”
Glaspell, “A Jury of Her Peers”
Hemingway, “In Another Country” (packet)
review: Crane, “The Blue Hotel”
readings:
“Getting Out of the Story” (Lohafer)
6.
2/15 Point of View and Narrative Voice (Voice and View: floating perspective, reliability, authorial intrusion, frames, etc.)
instructor: story:
Anderson, “I Want to Know Why”
(packet)
Godwin, “Dream Children”
(packet)
Crane, “A Mystery of Heroism” (packet)
Hemingway, “Hills Like White Elephants”
O‟Brien, “The Man I Killed” (+ Hardy poem “The Man He Killed”) (packet)
Jewett, “A White Heron”
Irving, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (“Post Script”)
Moore, “How”
(packet)
review: “A Rose for Emily,” “A Hunger Artist,”
“The Lottery,”
readings:
“Point of view” (“Reader‟s Guide”)
7.
2/22 Characterization
instructor: story:
Bellow, “Looking for Mr. Green”
Faulkner, “Barn Burning”
Carver, “Cathedral”
Beattie, "Janus" review: Kafka, "The Hunger Artist" (packet
),
Glaspell, “A Jury of Her Peers” Crane, “The Blue Hotel
,
”Ellison, “King of the Bingo Game”
readings:
“Character” (“Reader‟s Guide”)
8.
3/01 Narrative texture and rhythm: density vs. sparseness; showing vs. telling
instructor: story:
Gogol, “The Overcoat”
Fitzgerald, “Winter Dreams”
(last two pages)
Hemingway, “Hills Like White Elephants” (review)
James, from “The Beast in the Jungle” (packet)
readings:
“Style and tone” (“Reader‟s Guide”)
Historical Development 9. 3/08 From tale to story: Poe and the Single Effect; Hawthorne and the romance
instructor: story:
Irving, “Rip Van Winkle”
Poe, “The Cask Of Amontillado”
Hawthorne, “My Kinsman, Major Molineux”
readings:
“Historical Development of the Short Story” (“Reader‟s Guide”: 85
-91)
Poe, from review of Hawthorne‟s
Twice-Told Tales
(May)
Brander Mathews, “Philosophy of the Short Story” (May)
Robert Marler, “From Tale to Short Story: The Emergence of a New Genre in the 1850s”
(May) Reserve: May,
The Short Story: Reality of Articifice
, ch. 2 (pp. 21-45)
3/15 Spring Break(!) 10.
3/22 Early Realism
instructor: story:
Maupassant, “Rust”
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