In order to be a good writer, one must be a good reader. For a professional writer, life experiences are invaluable and bring an irreplaceable element to his/her writing, but at the same time many, if not all, professional writers will argue that reading and analyzing good writing is the best way to learn how to tell a story. As short story scholar Charles E. May has claimed, “Stories, therefore, do not come merely from life, they also come from other stories, and because writers know stories probably better than anything else, they are often likely to write stories about stories.”
For the first part of this course, we will focus our attention on the development of the contemporary American short story, i.e., short fiction that has evolved since WWII. We will start our study with a look at the structure and functions of the heart of story telling, narrative. From there, we will look at a number of theorists on the genre to help us define and deepen considerations of where the short story has come from, what it is today, and where the genre may be heading. To enhance our understanding, we will analyze story collections of several prominent American short story writers as well as stories in an anthology. Each member of the class will also report on a story collection of a writer of his/her choice as a contribution to the class’s collective study of the form. In the last part of the course, students will write short stories to be submitted to a class workshop.
Along with the required readings, the writing assignments include: 7 weekly contributions to a class blog (minimum 200 words per entry); a publishable book review of a student’s chosen short story collection; and 5 short story drafts (each approximately 1,000 words in length) to be submitted to a class workshop. Active participation in class discussions and in the workshops, and excellent attendance are mandatory course requirements.
Student Learning Outcomes
- Foundational knowledge of basic narrative theories relevant to the study of the short story.
- Understanding of advanced research methods.
- Written and oral ability to be able to place one’s critical work within broader critical and artistic conversations.
- Independent research using secondary resources.
- Ability to map, historicize and contextualize the short story genre.
Critical Texts:
- H. Porter Abbott, The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative (pdf text uploaded to Laulima “Resources”)
- Charles E. May, The New Theories of the Short Story
- Frank O’Connor, The Lonely Voice
- James Wood, How Fiction Works
- handouts to be uploaded to Laulima “Resources”
Short Story Collections:
- Raymond Carver, Cathedral
- Henry Dumas, Echo Tree: The Collected Fiction
- Hisaye Yamamoto, Seventeen Syllabus and Other Stories
- Tobias Wolff, ed., The Vintage Anthology of Contemporary American Short Stories