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English 118: 20th Century Literature – Stories of Our Time – 5March. 2011

Barry Horwitz - TuTh - 1:10 to 2:40 PM, in Dante 115

-Dante 304: TuTh - 3:00 to 5:00 & by app't.

Texts: The Art of the Short Story. Ed. Gioia, Dana and R.S Gwynn: Pearson Longman, 2006.

ISBN # 978-0-321-36363-3.

AP:Author’s Perspective, in The Art of the Short Story: Writers speak, after each story.

30/30: Thirty American Short Stories from the Last Thirty Years. Ed. Nguyen, Minh B.

and Porter Shreve: Pearson Longman, 2006. ISBN # 0-321-33898-7.

Unit ONE: Empires Old & New, The Rise of Modernism, 1900-1920

Week 1 Tu, Feb. 8 Introductory Analysis: Toni Cade Bambara, “The Lesson” (1972), xerox

1900 Th, Feb. 10 Tolstoy, “The Death of Ivan Ilych” (1886), Art of the Short Story,757.

Author’s Perspective:LeoTolstoy,“Moral Responsibilities of Art,” 797.

Week 2 Tu, Feb. 15 Chopin, “The Storm,” (1898), 153; “The Story of an Hour,” (1894), 157.

1900AP:Kate Chopin, “My Writing Method,” p. 159.

AntonChekhov, “The Lady With Dog” (1899);

AP:Chekhov, “Natural Description and the Center of Gravity”

Th, Feb. 17 Joseph Conrad, “The Secret Sharer” (1912);

AP:Conrad,“The Condition of Art”

Week 3 Tu, Feb. 22 WillaCather, “Paul’s Case” (1905), 106-120;

1915 WillaCather, “Art as the Process of Simplification,” 121.

Th, Feb. 24 Joyce,”Araby” (1914); “The Dead” (1914); Joyce, “Epiphanies”

Week 4 Tu., March1 VirginiaWoolf, “A Haunted House” (1921), pp. 843-845;

1920s Virginia Woolf,AP: “Women and Fiction,” pp. 845-846.

Sherwood Anderson, “Hands” (1919) pp.14-19;

Anderson, AP: “Words Not Plot Give Form to a Short Story,”19-20.

Th., March3 FranzKafka, “Before the Law” (1919), 465; The Metamorphosis (1915),467.

Kafka, *“The Hunger Artist” (1921), xerox;

Kafka, “Discussing The Metamorphosis,” pp. 500-501.

Unit TWO: Jazz Age, Harlem Renaissance, & New Deal, 1920-1945

Monday, March 7: Two Stories, Title, Thesis, Outline DUE.

Week 5 Tu, March 8 Katherine Mansfield, “Miss Brill” (1922), 561; “The Garden Party”(1922), 565;

1920s Katherine Mansfield, “On ‘The Garden Party,’” pages 575-576.

D.H. Lawrence, “The Rocking-Horse Winner” (1933);517 D.H. Lawrence, “The Novel Is the Bright Book of Life.” 528

Criticism: “Money and Labor in ‘The Rocking-Horse Winner,’” Watkins 893.

Th, March 10 Zora NealeHurston, “Sweat” (1926); 378.

Zora Neale Hurston, AP: “Eatonville When You Look at It.”387.

Ernest Hemingway, “A Clean Well-lighted Place” (1926); 370

Hemingway, AP: “One True Sentence”(1927).375

Monday, March 14: Essay #1 + Outline, DUE. 1,000 to 1, 250 words.

Week 6 Tu, March 15 F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Babylon Revisited,” (1935); 246.

1925 Fitzgerald, AP: “On His Own Literary Aims.” 262.

Langston Hughes, “Passing” (1925) [xerox].

Hughes, “The Negro Artist & the Racial Mountain” (1925) [xerox].

Th, March 17 William Faulkner, “Barn Burning” (1939); “A Rose for Emily” (1930);224, 238

WilliamFaulkner,“The Human Heart in Conflict With Itself”;245

Criticism: “Myth in Faulkner’s ‘Barn Burning,’”Edmond Volpe 891.

Criticism: “An Eskimo ‘A Rose for Emily,’”Stanley Fish 898.

Week 7 Tu, March 22 Eudora Welty, “Why I Live at the P.O.” (1941); 819

1930s Eudora Welty, AP: “The Plot of the Short Story.” 829

Ralph Ellison, “A Party Down at the Square” (1996 /1930s)217

Ralph Ellison, AP: “Race and Fiction.”222

Th, March 24 Jorge Luis Borges, “The Garden of the Forking Paths” (1941); 53

1940s Jorge Luis Borges, AP: “Literature as Experience.” 62

Criticism: “The Argentine Context of Borges’s Fantastic Fiction,” King 885.

Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery” (1949), p. 390;

Shirley Jackson, AP: “The Public Reception of ‘The Lottery’” 396.

Unit THREE: Revolution in a Post-War World, 1945-1975

Week 8 Tu, March 29 Chinua Achebe, “Dead Men’s Path” (1953), pages 9-11;

1950s Achebe, AP: “Modern Africa as the Crossroads of Culture” 12-13.

.

GabrielGarcia Marquez, “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” (‘55) 287;

Marquez, AP: “My Beginnings as a Writer” 293

Th, March 31 Flannery O’Connor, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” (1955), 677

O’Connor, “The Element of Suspense in ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’” 704

Albert Camus, “The Guest” (1957), pp. 64-74;

Albert Camus, AP: “Revolution and Repression in Algeria” 74-76.

Week 9 Tu, April 5 Isaac Bashevis Singer,” Gimpel the Fool” (1957); 744.

1950s Singer, AP: “The Character of Gimpel” 755.

James Baldwin, Sonny’s Blues (1957), 26;

Baldwin: “Race and the African-American Writer,” 49. Criticism: “Light and Darkness in ‘Sonny’s Blues,’” Clark 880.

Th, April 7 Yukio Mishima, “Patriotism” (1961); AP: “Physical Courage and Death” 628, 646.

1960s Nadine Gordimer, “A Company of Laughing Faces” (1965); 333.

AP: “How the Short Story Differs From the Novel.” 345.

Flannery O’Connor, “Revelation” (1965). 689.

Monday, April 11 - * DUE: Thesis + Outline: Research two writers.

Week 10 Tu, April 12 Crit: Barthes, The Death of the Author (1968), 900

1970sOates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? (1970) 663

AP: Productivity and the Critics 676

Th, April 14 Walker, “Everyday Use” (1973); AP: The Black Woman Writer in America 809, 816

*Bambara, “The Lesson” (1972) [Handout]

Munro, “How I Met My Husband” (1974); AP: How I Write Short Stories 648, 661

Mon, April 25 *DUE: Essay #2, Research two writers. 1,000 – 1,250 words.

*Essay # 2 Assignment

1. You may choose any two writers & stories from our Unit Two or Unit Three.

2. Research some historical and political facts on your chosen writers.

3. We will work on your topic from April 4 to 8, atyour research essay conferences.

Unit FOUR: New Voices, Breaking Away: 1975 to Today!

Mon, April 25 *DUE: Essay #2, Research two writers.

Week 11 Tu, April 26 Ursula LeGuin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” (1975) 530

1970sLe Guin: On “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” 535

Donald Bartheleme, “The School” (1976), 30/3041.

T.C. Boyle, “Greasy Lake” (1979), 30/3056.

Th, April 28 Leslie Marmon Silko, “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” (1981) 738

1980sSilko: “The Basis of ‘The Man to Send Rain Clouds’” 742

Raymond Carver, “Cathedral” (1983)76; “A Small Good Thing” (1983), 88

Carver: “Commonplace but Precise Language” 104

Margaret Atwood, “Happy Endings” (1983) 21;

Atwood: “On the Canadian Identity”, 24

Week 12 Tu, May 3 Jamaica Kincaid, “Girl” (1983), 30/30183.

Louise Erdrich, “Saint Marie” (1984), 30/30118.

LydiaDavis, “Story” (1983), 30/3092.

Sandra Cisneros, “The House on Mango Street” (1984) 30/3090.

Th, May 5 Laurie Moore, “How to Talk to Your Mother” (Notes) (1985), 30/30240.

TimO’Brien, “The Things They Carried” (1986), 30/30 249.

DorothyAllison, “River of Names” (1988) 30/3032.

1990s Charles Baxter, “Snow” (1990), 30/3044.

Week 13 Tu, May 10 David Leavitt, “Gravity” (1990), 30/30204.

Reginald McKnight, “The Kind Light that Shines on Texas” (1992), 30/30223.

DavidWongLouie, “Cold Hearted” (1994) 30/30215.

GishJen, “Birthmates” (1994) 30/30168.

Junot Diaz, “Fiesta” 1980 (1996) 30/3095.

Annie Proulx, “Job History” (1999), 30/30283.

2000s Th, May 12 Sherman Alexie, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” (2003), 30/3012.

RonCarlson, “Milk” (2003), 30/3065.

Stuart Dybek, We Didn’t (2003), 30/30108.

Percival Everett, The Fix (2003), 30/30131.

Z. Z.Packer, “Every Tongue Shall Confess” (2003), 30/30270.

Finals May 16-19 Final Exam.