Module to which the course contributes: Literature and Culture Program           

Programs of study to which the module contributes: English & American Literature

Level of the module: Honours     

Category in Major Program: Disciplinary Elective            

The expected and desired learning outcomes at the bachelor’s level include an advanced level of mastery of research skills applied to the written text that will allow students to achieve intellectual maturity as well as an initial experience of active professionalism within academia.

By the end of the course, you should have:

CG1. Demonstrated the ability to present logical and coherent arguments in oral form through class discussion.

CG2. Developed skills of analysis which can be applied outside the confines of the module.

CG3. Showed ability in presenting ideas in written form through essays and examination. 

CG4. Learned to appreciate an approach to literature that is multidisciplinary. 

CG5. Developed an understanding of how narrative theory can contribute to an analysis of your chosen area of research.

By the end of the course, you should feel that you have developed some of the following:

CE1. A heightened sensitivity to different kinds of literary writing and to experiments with the short story.

CE2. A greater understanding of the short story in critical and historical terms: how short stories reflect human experience over time and through different cultures.

CE3. A larger critical vocabulary for thinking, talking and writing about the short story.

CE4. An enhanced capacity to evaluate key literary and theoretical texts: you will be encouraged to think about genre (the form of writing), representation (the rhetoric in which writing conveys experience), and theme (the ideas and issues that writing actualizes).

CE5. A greater appreciation of an author’s work in terms of narrative style and descriptive technique, language, tone or mood, and literary conventions.

Additionally, by the end of the module, you should have acquired some of the following skills:

CT1. The ability to develop your research skills in printed and electronic media.

CT2. The ability to work closely and collaboratively with members of a small team, and be able to present ideas to the larger group.

CT3. The ability to analyze events, movements, groups, and individuals who have shaped and continue to shape American culture, history, and literature.

CT4. The ability to develop reasoned arguments, and present them in accessible forms, both orally and in writing, i.e., develop an interpretation of a literary text, collect research from appropriate sources, support the interpretation with evidence, and cite the source material).

CT5. The ability to locate critical texts through responsible research and retrieval of information.

Copies of the class syllabus, course handouts and several short readings will be available to download on Studium. The anthology we will be using, The Short Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction, 8th edition, 2011 (ISBN 978-0-312-59623-1) is edited by Ann Charters.

Recommended texts

March-Russell, Paul. The Short Story. An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009.

May, Charles. “I am Your Brother”. Short Story Studies. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013.

Cox, Ailsa. Writing Short Stories. New York: Routledge, 2005.

Indicative Secondary Reading

Bendixen, Alfred, and Nagel, James (Eds.). A Companion to the American Short Story. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.

Boddy, Kasia. The American Short Story since 1950. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010.

Gerlarch, John. Toward the End. Closure and Structure in the American Short Story. Alabama: The University of Alabama Press, 1985.

Hanson, Clare. Short Stories and Short Fictions, 1880-1890. London: Macmillan, 1985.

_____ . Re-reading the Short Story. London: Macmillan, 1989.

Hunter, Adrian. The Cambridge Introduction to the Short Story in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Iftekharrudin, Farhat. The Postmodern Short Story: Forms and Issues. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2003.

Iftekharrudin, Farhat et al. (Eds.). Postmodern Approaches to the Short Story. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2003.

Lohafer, Susan. Coming to Terms with the Short Story. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana University Press, 1983.

_____ . Reading for Storyness. Preclosure Theory, Empirical Poetics, and Culture in the Short Story. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University, 2003.

Lohafer, Susan, and Clarey, Jo Ellyn (Eds.). Short Story at a Crossroads. Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1989.

Lounsberry, Barbara, et al. (Eds.). The Tales We Tell: Perspectives on the Short Story. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood P, 1998.

Malcolm, Cheryl Alexander, and Malcolm, David (Eds.). A Companion to the British and Irish Short Story. Oxford: Blackwell, 2008.

May, Charles. The Short Story. The reality of Artifice. New York and London: Routledge, 2002 [1995].

May, Charles (Ed.). The New Short Story Theories. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1994. Scofield, Martin. The Cambridge Introduction to the American Short Story. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Winther, Per, et al. (Eds.). The Art of Brevity. Excursions in Short Fiction Theory and Analysis. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2004.

Electronic Resources

The Short Story Library – American Literature 

http://www.americanliterature.com/sstitleindex.html  

Bibliomania: Short Stories

http://www.bibliomania.com/0/5/frameset.html   

The Voice of the Shuttle 

http://vos.ucsb.edu/  

Perspectives in American Literature

http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/table.html  

The Online Books Page

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/  

Annotated Author Links

http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/litlinks/Pages/Main.aspx  

Committed participation in class and self-motivated personal research is essential for this course. Your performance will be measured in a variety of ways, including some or all of the following: in-class presentations, take-home essays (analytical research papers), tutorial discussions (seminar work), and a final examination. 

A student’s course grade will be determined by five factors:

• Attendance and Informed Class Participation: 10%
• Oral Presentation: 15%
• Seminar work: 20%
• Essay: 15%
• Final examination: 40%

Teacher-made rubric for oral presentation, analytical essay, and tutorial discussion. Grading is based on a standard point system where each assignment is worth a set amount of points (depending on the assignment’s weight and value to the course), which contributes to an overall course total:

MH = 95-100% (A+)

Sb. = 90-94%  (A)

Not.= 75-89%  (B)

Ap. =  60-74% (C)

Susp.= 0-59% (D)

In order to pass this course, students must make a serious attempt at ALL assessment tasks

Written feedback on assessed coursework. Verbal feedback on presentations and nonassessed coursework.