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The American short story tradition is a rich one: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, Ambrose Bierce, Eudora Welty, Sherwood Anderson, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O’Connor, Shirley Jackson, Wendell Berry, Gayl Jones—and many others.
This course will concentrate on three great twentieth century short story writers—and we will read collections of their stories that are linked together in some way. We will begin with Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio, then read a book of stories by either Flannery O’Connor or Shirley Jackson, and end with Wendell Berry’s The Wild Birds.
We will pay close attention to themes and their development, to characters and the way they are presented, and to the words and images that the story gives us.
Good close reading, weekly in-class “scribbles,” and a well-written, thoughtful seminar paper will be required, and enjoyment of our reading and our conversations will be expected. |
