This course is a survey of short fiction from the early nineteenth century to the present.   The first two-thirds of the class is organized chronologically by each story's date of publication.  During the last third of the course, we will spotlight five authors:  Maupassant, Chekhov, Kipling, O'Connor, and Munro.  Student teams will introduce these authors and provide biographies, place their work in historical and cultural context, offer contemporary critical reactions to their stories, synthesize the important issues and key features of the writers' works, and concentrate on several stories for discussion.   By the end of the course each student should be able to:

• read stories closely in order to argue effectively for a variety of interpretations of texts using evidence and explanation;

• explain how biographical, historical, and cultural events helped shape individual stories;

• explain how the short story has developed as a genre from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century;

• research a short story writer and synthesize your findings orally and in writing; and

• formulate a variety of strategies for teaching short fiction.

The fourth goal on this list may seem a bit unusual, but a number of you plan to teach English, so I have tried to make this course particularly useful to you by selecting authors and stories that will often be taught in secondary schools and focusing on how to think about and teach short fiction. 

As for the day-to-day operation of the course, my teaching methods are student-centered.  I will very rarely lecture, and we will generally follow a discussion format.  As you will soon discover, I don’t claim to have all the answers.  I have more experience reading than you, but I continue to learn and experience new pleasures every time I read or re-read a work of literature.  As the course progresses I hope to learn from you just as you learn from each other and me.

Attendance: Your participation in this course is essential, and as a result, so is attendance.  You are expected to attend every class meeting and each required conference.  After the third unexcused absence, you will automatically fail the class (departmental policy).  Excused absences include illnesses, official college events, and funerals. You must provide documentation in order for an absence to be excused--an e-mail is not sufficient.  If you plan to be absent, tell me beforehand, so you can submit work ahead of time.  I do not accept late work.