ENGLISH 283: Short Fiction
Fall, 2002
Dr. Kuzmanovich
“…however large or small the story—the human impulse is to
make sense of each moment by referring it to a larger narrative. We need to live in a world not of our own
making.” Sunday
Times Magazine
Place: Chambers 316; Time:
Phone #: 2237; e-mail: zokuzmanovich
Required Texts: Gioia and Gwynn, The Longman
Anthology of Short Fiction.
Recommended
Texts:
John Gardner, The Art of Fiction;
Rust Hills, Writing in General and the
Short Story in Particular.
Procedure: Initially two thirds lecture
(historical, thematic, and theoretical), one third informed discussion of closely related and
closely read stories. Then one fourth
lecture, three fourths student-led and even more informed discussion. If this
is your first literature class, there is a brief but very useful glossary of
literary terms at the end of your book.
Class Requirements: One mid-term exam (15%),
one short paper (15%), one long researched paper (25%), self-scheduled final
exam or a fiction portfolio (three short stories) (30%), discussion (15%). Should you
choose the portfolio option over the final exam one, prepare your portfolio as
if you were submitting it for publication (see Writer’s Market or Literary
Marketplace, or any of the websites devoted to this topic). The stories you submit should have been
written during this semester and submitted for grade only for in this
class. Please do not assume that writing
a series of short stories is an easy task and thus to be preferred over the
final exam; as an editor of a journal, I try to uphold fairly high standards of
literary competence and originality. I will grade these stories and comment on
them in person; I will not correct, edit, or annotate them.
Discussions: Each student will lead
one class discussion.
Papers: All topics must be
approved in advance.
Class
conferences:
Either one of us may request a conference during my office hours or at a
mutually convenient time.
Secondary
Works
(some are not in our Library, and some have slightly
different call numbers):
Allen,
Walter. The Short Story in English.
Hampl, Patricia. ed. The Houghton Mifflin Anthology of Short Fiction.
Hanson,
Clare. ed. Re-reading the Short Story.
Head,
Dominic. The Modernist Short Story: A Study in Theory and Practice.
Hughes,
Douglas A. Studies in Short Fiction. 2d ed.
Hutcheon, L. A Poetics of Post
Modernism.
Hutcheon, L. Narcissistic Narrative: The Metafictional Paradox.
Lohafer, Susan
and Jo Ellyn Clarey. Eds. Short
Story Theory at the Crossroads.
Mann,
Susan Garland. The Short Story Cycle: A Genre Companion and Reference Guide.
May, Charles E. Short Story Theories.
O'Connor,
Frank. The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story.
O'Faolain, Sean. The Short Story.
Old
Reid,
Ian. The Short Story.
Shaw,
Valerie. The Short Story: A Critical Introduction.
Stone,
Wilfred. The Short Story: An Introduction. 2nd ed.
Tallack, Douglas. The Nineteenth-century American
Short Story: Language, Form, and Ideology.
Thomas
A. Gullison, "The Short Story: Revision and
Renewal," Studies in Short Fiction (Summer 1982): 221-230. S809.31
8
Vannatta, Dennis. ed. The
English Short Story: A Critical History.
Watson,
Noelle. ed. Reference Guide to Short Fiction.
Waugh,
Patricia. Metafiction..
Weaver,
Gordon. ed. The American Short Story, 1945-1980: a
critical history.
A
Few Words on Teaching Literature
This is the kind of answer
I give to myself when I ask myself why I teach literature: If language is a
window into other minds, then literature is a peculiar kind of a structure
preserving and creating both the windows and the views those windows grant. As
a unique repository of a culture's riches, literature provides one of the few
imaginary spaces where minds can really meet. Read properly, the passions and
preoccupations of other minds immerse us in diverse views of human experience
while helping to frame our unique knowledge of ourselves. But such knowledge
arrives only through the discipline we must impose on our thoughts and feelings
in order for them to be expressed precisely and thus made present to others.
Expressing ourselves well means making it possible for our audience to sense in
our every sentence both the resonances of our race, gender, region, class,
religion, ethnicity, and political ideology as well as the distinctive independence
of our individual spirit's synthesis of, and reaction to those cultural forces.
Keep reminding yourself that through your every word and image you not merely
express but produce what you think. And then, if such reminders do not silence
you, treat your audience to the full complexity of your historical perspective,
the breadth of you cultural literacy, the sharpness of your interpretive
acumen, the richness of your understanding of the imaginative process, and thus
the lucid pleasure inherent in any task done precisely and passionately. Yes,
it's scary, but I can't imagine doing anything else with as much commitment.
Plagiary
occurs whenever you present another writer’s work in such a way as to give your reader reason to
think it to be your own. Plagiarism is a form of academic fraud, and it always
leads to a failing grade for the plagiarized work, but may, depending on Honor
Council decisions, also result in a loss of credit for the course, for the
semester, temporary suspension from the College, etc.
The
most common types of plagiarism are:
1.
“Let Mikey Do It!”
This is the grossest form of plagiarism since it includes the use of a
paper purchased from a paper mill, or a work prepared by any person other than
the individual claiming to be the author such as a paper stolen from another
student or acquired from the fraternity or eating house archives. (I usually ask for temporary suspension from
the College.)
2.
“The Double-Dip.” Self-plagiarism occurs when you submit work which is the same
or substantially the same as work for which you have already received academic
credit here or elsewhere. (I usually ask for loss of credit for the class.)
3.
“Gee, I wish I had written that! Wait a
minute; I just did!” Incorporating into your own sentences the happily phrased
words written or said by another but failing to put the quotation marks
around those “happy” words and thus avoiding having to credit your source. (I
usually fail the paper, but will fail the student for the class if I receive no
cooperation in ascertaining the degree of infraction. The Honor Council may and usually does add
its own penalties.)
The
College values and rewards original thought, but it also values and rewards
proper research which requires the correct crediting of authorities from whom
you derive your phrasing, facts, and opinions.
Every
discipline within the curriculum requires documentation, but correct method of
attribution varies from discipline to discipline. I require the latest MLA style (usually
off the Web: this year it’s http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~expos/sources/#textboxes)
If
you are ever in any doubt about what to document, please ask me, but until you
do, surprise the devil and do the right thing:
document absolutely everything.
A
Few Words on Grading
Your
final grade will never be lower than the arithmetical average of your in-course
grades; it may be higher if your writing and
discussing shows notable improvement. Although all grading is to some degree
subjective, I want to clue you in on what my particular criteria are. I am
convinced that written assignments help you to develop and clarify your
understanding of a text, thus giving you a firmer grasp of it than reading,
lecture, or discussion alone can provide. What I look for in your writing are
the following elements: (words like sense and feeling hint at the subjectivity;
remember, however, that I am a trained reader and that these criteria are
constants for everyone in this class).
-a sense that you have understood and considered all
aspects of the assignment and have something interesting to say in response to
it (rather than answering the obvious questions or latching on to something
already trodden over in lecture and discussion)
-depth of understanding of the work under discussion
(considering evidence which might be interpreted quite differently from the way
you read it, anticipating those objections and fending them off rather than
conveniently forgetting about them; appropriate details brought forth to
convince me of your contention; citations, always with page numbers, thoroughly
interpreted and commented upon)
-a feeling (very early in your response to the
assignment) of some insightful point being made and of the method you plan to
use in demonstrating that point (the more I have to guess what it is you are
getting at, the more you'll have to wonder about your grade; mystery has a
better place on late-night television)
-a sense that you have profited from doing the
assignment itself, a new insight even, usually evident in a conclusion which
does not merely summarize but speculates, conjectures, surmises, theorizes,
meditates, ponders, reflects, ruminates (yes, I use a thesaurus and so should
you) or gives other indication of an ongoing engagement with the text at hand
-rhetorical awareness: when you write for me, you write
for an interested and sympathetic but also skeptical reader. To convince me
that you are making the best possible case for your reading, assume an
authoritative interested tone, achieved (a) through precise propositions which
are qualified where necessary and (b) through a consideration of other points
of view; carefully selected and contextualized citations; coherent exposition
and sufficient development of your insight gained by clear transitions between
sentences and paragraphs; fair use of outside materials in observance of the
honor code.
NB: I am distressed and
irritated by carelessness in handling of logic, grammar, and textual evidence,
and, as a result, every time I have to correct something, your grade is
affected accordingly. For me, teaching provides a type of satisfaction no other
activity can provide, so I care about all aspects of it, including your
writing. I hope you will care about it as much as I do. I applaud good
intentions, encourage aspiration, and value hard work, but I reward only
achievement.
LETTERS AND NUMBERS: Letter grades will be
converted to numerical ones according to the following scale:
A = 95; A- = 92; B+ = 88; B = 85; B- = 82; C+ =
78; C = 75; C- = 72; D+ = 68; D = 65.
Calendar: There are many ways to arrange the stories in this
text—thematic, generic, formal, etc. Several alternative arrangements and
groupings are in your book on pages 1905-1910.
I have chosen the roughly chronological method, but within each pairing
of stories there are plenty of resonances which should give us the opportunity
to discuss themes, techniques, critical approaches, influences.
Calendar
August
26: Introduction to the course; overview of terms,
ideas, concepts, cycles, and history
Kincaid, “Girl”; Enrique Anderson Imbert, “Taboo, Amy Hempel,
“Housewife”
Romantic
Beginnings
August
28:
August
30:
September
2:
Poe, “The Imp of the Perverse”
(WEB http://www.geocities.com/short_stories_page/poeimp.html);
“The Tell-tale Heart”
September 4:
Gogol, “The Overcoat”; Melville,
“Bartelby” (WEB http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~daniel/amlit/bartleby/bartleby.html ) or (TBA)
September
6
Melville,
“Benito Cereno”; Read also 1768-1775
Realist Endings
September
9:
Harte, “The Outcasts of Poker
Flat”; Twain, “The Jumping Frog of
September
11:
Crane, “The Bride comes to Yellow Sky”;
Chopin, “The Story of an Hour”
September
13:
Flaubert,
“A Simple Heart”; Chekhov,
“An Upheaval”; see also 423-425 and 679-80.
September 16:
Chekhov, “Misery”; “The
Lady with the Pet Dog”; Read also 1800-1802.
September
18
O’Henry, “The Last Leaf”; Joyce, “Eveline”;
Read also 950-52: Epiphanies and 1804-1807.
September 20:
Henry James,
“Daisy Miller” or “The Real Thing” or “The Turn of the Screw”
It’s all muddled middles: Modernist Angst and Anomie
September
23:
September 25
Hemingway, “Hills Like White Elephants” (WEB http://bama.ua.edu/~clifford/lit/hills.htm ) “A Very
Short Story”(WEB
http://www.mala.bc.ca/~lanes/english/hemngway/vershort.htm ); See also 829-830:
One True Sentence
September 27
D.H.
Lawrence, “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter”; Willa Cather,
“Paul’s Case”; See also 321-22: Art as
the Process of Simplification
September
30
Mansfield,
“Miss Brill,” “Bliss”
October
2:
October
4:
Roth, “Conversion of the Jews”; Malamud, “Angel Levine”
October
7:
Singer; “Gimpel
the Fool” and 1533-35; Cheever, “The Swimmer”
October
9:
Mason, “
October
11: Midterm Exam
Post-Modernism:
Hanging Out with Kafka’s Offspring
October
16:
Kafka, “Before the Law,” “A Hunger
Artist”/”Metamorphosis”/”A Little Woman”
October
18/ 21:
O’Connor, “Good Country People,” “A Good Man
is Hard to Find”; Read also 1410-13; 1788-90; 1825-29.
October 23/25:
Welty, “Petrified Man,” “Why I Live at the P.O.” and
1699-1701
October 28/30:
Garcia
Marquez, ”A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”; Borges, “The Gospel According to
Mark”; Read also 188-90: Literature as Experience and 1807-09
November
1/4:
Disch, “The Man who Read a
Book”; Clarke, “The Nine Billion Names of God”
November
6/8:
Bradbury, “The Veldt”; Atwood, “Rape
Fantasies”
November
11/13:
Dubus, “A Father’s Story”; Dinesen, “Sorrow-Acre”
Multicultural
Renaissance
November
15/18:
Erdrich, “The Red Convertible”;
Cisneros, “Barbie-Q”;
November
20/22:
Gilb, “Look on the Bright Side”;
November
25:
Carver, “A Small Good Thing”;
November 27: Thanksgiving Break
November
29: Thanksgiving Break
December
2/4:
December
6:
December 9/11:
Nabokov, “Cloud, Castle,
December
13: Exams Begin
Untitled (by Anonymous)
Apollo
stood on the high cliff.
"Come
to the edge," he said."We're comfortable
back here," they said.
“Come
to the edge,” he said. “We’re too busy,” they said.
“Come
to the edge,” he said.“It’s
too high,” they said.
“Come
to the edge,” he said.“We’re
afraid,” they said.
“Come
to the edge,” he said. “We’ll fall,” they said.
“Come
to the edge,” he said.
And
they did.
And
he pushed them.
And
they flew.
Taboo (by Enrique
Anderson Imbert)
His
guardian angel whispered to Fabian, behind his shoulder:
“Careful, Fabian! It is decreed that you
will die the minute you pronounce the word doyen.
”Doyen?” asks Fabian intrigued.
And
he dies.
Housewife
(by Amy Hempel)
She
would always sleep with her husband and with another man in the course of the
same day, and then the rest of the day, for whatever was left to her of that
day, she would exploit by incanting, "French film, French film."