Spring 2024
Prof. Thomas Austenfeld
Lecture: The Short Story – A National Art Form
Description: The United States developed its characteristic versions and voices within the short story genre. Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry James each had vastly different ideas on what constituted a “short story,” a “tale” or even a “long story.” Women writers, among them Sarah Orne Jewett, Kate Chopin, and Willa Cather, pioneered new ways of writing stories with women’s concerns. Ernest Hemingway and others radically revised what a story could do. After World War II, realists and minimalists vied for attention and pushed the short story into new directions. Today, the story has become a major vehicle of expression for immigrants, marginal groups, and new authors breaking into print for the first time. We will study sample texts from the different periods of the story’s development as well as major theoretical statements about the form of the short story in North America.
House Rules: Attendance is required and will be monitored by way of a signup sheet. You may miss two meetings without excuse if it’s necessary, but additional absences must be explained and documented. Lecture materials will be provided to you on MOODLE and may serve as study aids for the final exam.
Texts (at Librophoros):
Great American Short Stories, ed. Paul Negri. Dover Thrift editions. 2002.
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February 20 |
Introduction: Precursors to the Short Story |
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February 27 |
The 19th century: Edgar Allan Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart” —Theory and Practice |
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March 5 |
The 19th century: Henry James and the “tale”: “The Real Thing” |
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March 12 |
The 19th century: Challenges of Regionalism: Sarah Orne Jewett (“A White Heron”), Mary Wilkins Freeman (“A New England Nun”), Kate Chopin (At the ‘Cadian Ball” and “The Storm”) |
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March 19 |
Transition to World War One: Edith Wharton (“The Other Two”), Sherwood Anderson (“The Egg”) |
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March 26 |
More transition: Theodore Dreiser (“Old Rogaum and His Theresa”), Willa Cather (“Paul’s Case”), O. Henry (“The Purple Dress”) |
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April 2 |
EASTER HOLIDAY |
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April 9 |
The 20th century: Modernisms – Ernest Hemingway (“The Killers”), F. Scott Fitzgerald (“Bernice Bobs Her Hair”), Kay Boyle (“Maiden, Maiden”) |
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April 16 |
The 20th century-post World War Two – John Cheever (“The Swimmer”), John Updike (“A & P” and “The Persistence of Desire”) |
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April 23 |
The 20th century: Minimalism – Ann Beattie (“The Burning House”), Raymond Carver (“Cathedral”) |
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April 30 |
The late 20th century: Tim O’Brien (“The Things They Carried”), Tobias Wolff (“Two Boys and a Girl”) |
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May 7 |
The 21st century: Jhumpa Lahiri (“The Boundary”), Edwidge Danticat (“Sunrise, Sunset”) |
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May 14 |
The 21st century: Kristen Roupenian (“Cat Person”) |
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May 21 |
NO CLASS: Conference Absence |
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May 28 |
FINAL EXAM |