English 261-311
Introduction to Short Stories: American Short Stories
Instr: Van Pelt, William
Office: CRT 505; 229-4326
e-mail: vanpelt@uwm.edu
Office hours: R; 3:40-4:45pm or by appointment
Course Information: MTWR; 1:00-3:40pm; CRT 124 (5/29-6/23)
Course Description
In this course, we will read a selection of American short stories from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will study these stories as literary experiences, as historical markers of our evolving American ethos, and as cultural signifiers of what we are and who we might become. Students will develop interpretive and analytical skills by engaging the rhetorical aspects of the short story, the social contexts that shape the authors' representations of fictional events, the complexity of the characters and values represented in the stories, the audiences' reception of these representations, the authors' use of linguistic imagery and metaphor, and the impact these stories have on our contemporary understanding of American literature, history, culture, and the evolution of social diversity from the 19th century to the present. The course requires substantial reading, regular in-class quizzes, group work, and exams.
Three (3) credits; satisfies General Education Requirement (GER) for Humanities Distribution Credit (HU)
Generic Summer Syllabus available at: http://www.uwm.edu/~vanpelt/261Syllabus-07s.doc
Required Book: Major American Short Stories, edited by A. Walton Litz, Third Edition, Oxford University Press, 1994. Available in the UWM Bookstore.
