Introduction to Short Fiction
Introduction to Short Fiction
Fall 2014
Instructor: Corey D Clawson
Email: [email protected]
Office hours: by appointment
MW 2:50-4:10, Scott Hall 101
Course Content
This course offers a modest overview of short fiction and its various elements from its inception
to the present day. This course is designed to offer a sampling of short fiction across genres
and geographies while emphasizing the productive capacities of writing, research, and literature
in the assigned work and discussion elements of the course.
Student Learning Outcomes
As part of the core curriculum, students will be expected to meet at least two of the following
goals from SAS:
1. Examine critically philosophical and other theoretical issues concerning the nature of
reality, human experience, knowledge, value, and/or cultural production.
2. Analyze literatures in themselves and in relation to specific histories, values, languages,
cultures, and technologies.
3. Understand the nature of human languages and their speakers.
4. Engage critically in the process of creative expression.
You will be evaluated on these criteria at the end of the semester
Required Texts
All resources will be posted on Sakai either as a link or as a pdf. You will be expected to bring
printed copies of these texts to class marking the passages you find significant and writing down
observations to be shared in class and/or in papers.
Course Grade Breakdown
Note that you begin the semester with a zero and that it is only through the following
assignments and activities that you will obtain a passing grade in the course:
• Attendance & participation (20%)
• One in-class presentation (15%)
• Online discussion (15%)
• One 4-6 page close reading essay (20%)
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Comparative final paper (30%)
The final grade breakdown is as follows: A (94-100%), A- (90-93%), B+ (86-89%), B (83-85%),
B- (80-82%), C+ (76-79%), C (73-75%), C- (70-72%), D (66-69%), and F (65% and below).
Students are expected to track their performance throughout the semester and seek guidance
from available sources (including the instructor) if their performance drops below satisfactory
levels.
Conduct & Policies
Courtesy & Respect
I will treat you with respect and I expect you to extend the same respect toward me and your
classmates. Absolutely no discriminatory remarks about or behavior directed toward a person’s
race, creed, religion, national origin, age, sex or disability will be tolerated in the classroom.
Academic Integrity
Rutgers University Academic Integrity Policy (effective Sept 1, 2011) states:
“The principles of academic integrity require that a student:
• properly acknowledge and cite all use of the ideas, results, or words of others.
• properly acknowledge all contributors to a given piece of work.
• make sure that all work submitted as his or her own in a course or other academic
activity is produced without the aid of unsanctioned materials or unsanctioned
collaboration.
• obtain all data or results by ethical means and report them accurately without
suppressing any results inconsistent with his or her interpretation or conclusions.
• treat all other students in an ethical manner, respecting their integrity and right to
pursue their educational goals without interference. This requires that a student
neither facilitate academic dishonesty by others nor obstruct their academic
progress.
• uphold the canons of the ethical or professional code of the profession for which he
or she is preparing.
“Adherence to these principles is necessary in order to insure that
• everyone is given proper credit for his or her ideas, words, results, and other
scholarly accomplishments.
• all student work is fairly evaluated and no student has an inappropriate advantage
over others.
• the academic and ethical development of all students is fostered.
• the reputation of the University for integrity in its teaching, research, and scholarship
is maintained and enhanced.
“Failure to uphold these principles of academic integrity threatens both the reputation of the
University and the value of the degrees awarded to its students. Every member of the University
community therefore bears a responsibility for ensuring that the highest standards of academic
integrity are upheld.” Found at:
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http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/files/documents/AI_Policy_9_01_2011.pdf
Policy on Late Work
Late work is not accepted. If you will be absent on the day an assignment is due it is your
responsibility to make arrangements to submit the assignment by that class period.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the presentation of the ideas, language, calculations of another in one’s graded
work as if it were one’s own and is a form of theft. All varieties of plagiarism will be treated as
violations of the Rutgers University Academic Integrity Policy and reported. Tools for detecting
plagiarism are readily available today making this type of intellectual dishonesty easy to detect.
Its punishments range from an ‘F’ on the assignment to expulsion from the University,
depending upon the severity of the violation.
If you have any questions about what constitutes honest behavior, over-compensate by citing
sources. Feel free to consult myself and the writing center in these matters. For more
information about the Rutgers University Academic Integrity Policy, see the following website:
http://ctaar.rutgers.edu/integrity/policy.html
Americans with Disabilities Act
Matters of disability will be handled in consultation with the relevant entities on campus in a
confidential and caring manner. Any student who believes that s/he may need an
accommodation in this class due to a disability should contact the Office of Disability Services,
Kreeger Learning Center, 151 College Avenue; [email protected]; 732-932-2847.
Students must have a letter of accommodation from the Office of Disability Services in order to
receive accommodations.
Campus Resources
Rutgers provides a number of resources to its students through Student Support Services
(http://sss.rutgers.edu/) including counseling, tutoring, and test preparation. Rutgers Campus
Writing Centers (http://wp.rutgers.edu/tutoring/writingcenters) offer one-on-one peer review of
your written work.
Activities|Assignments
Attendance & Participation:
A key component of world literature is gaining an understanding of others’ perspectives. For
this reason, attending and participating regularly in class is an essential requirement. You will
not be penalized for your first two absences; however, excessive (defined as 6 or more)
absences will significantly affect your grade. Likewise, excessive and/or regular tardiness is
unacceptable and will likely affect the quiz portion of your grade.
Students should prepare themselves for each class period first by completing the required
readings and assignments by the date that they are assigned. Participation in class also
necessitates the silencing of phones and other electronics not used expressly for the purposes
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of taking notes on class discussion. All other electronic activities (from email to games and
beyond) are prohibited.
Reading quizzes: If participation in the course becomes stagnant with only a fraction of the
students reading and participating in the discussion, the instructor reserves the right to
implement reading quizzes on the readings to be administered at the beginning of class.
Questions will be in the form of true/false, multiple choice, and/or short answer. Should they
become necessary, these unscheduled quizzes will be administered throughout the semester to
gauge students’ comprehension of the readings.
Six Strikes Rule: Upon accumulating 6 absences students automatically fail the course.
Because active discussion is an essential aspect of this course missing six sessions (roughly
20% of the course) is an unacceptable and not in keeping with the course goals. If you foresee
this becoming an issue whether as a result of disability or family crises, please address them
with me privately in advance of this becoming an issue so that we can work with the appropriate
campus entities to make the appropriate accommodations
Essays:
There are two essay assignments (including the final paper). The first is worth 20% of your final
grade and the last is worth 30%. All work should be submitted in MLA format as outlined in the
MLA Handbook and http://owl.english.purdue.edu/. A good paper will include appropriate
headings and citations, a title, an introduction stating a clear thesis, a presentation of evidence
supporting your thesis from the poem (including quotations, observations, and minimal
summary), and a conclusion. An assignment sheet with a rubric and more specific
requirements will be shared approximately 2 weeks before the essay is due. Prompts will be
offered based upon class discussion, though independent ideas on the texts
Essay I: Literary Analysis:
Due 10/27
In Essay I (4-6 pp.) students are expected to engage one text from the course through a critical
close reading of a text demonstrating what a text’s individual elements produce in concert.
Final II: Critical Comparative Analysis:
Due 12/10
This paper should be approximately 5-7 pages comparing two of the works read in class. This
essay will incorporate criticism on the works in question focusing on a significant shared aspect
of the works such as race, sexuality, shared tropes, etc.. How are these topics or items treated
differently in the two works? What does this reveal about the world beyond the texts? Again,
more information will be provided as the assignment approaches.
Presentations:
Each student will present on a given work to be given the day we read it. The student will give a
presentation of roughly ten minutes following the following criteria:
•
•
•
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Engages with the work’s contexts. (When, where, who, how it was written)
Highlights significant passages from the text.
Draws parallels with works already discussed in class or to be read on the same day.
Offers at least three questions for discussion.
These presentations are open format meaning that students have the option of preparing a
digital presentation (PowerPoint/Keynote), reading a short paper, offering a creative product
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such as a video. More ambitious presentations may be undertaken in tandem with another
student. Sign-ups begin in week 2.
Class Blog:
During the semester, students will engage be expected to respond to the texts we are reading
as well as to engage and critique each other’s writing. More information will be offered
regarding the expectations in the second week of classes.
Course Calendar
*Subject to revision as necessary.
Weeks 1-6: Foundations of Short Fiction
9/3: Course business, syllabus discussion, and introductions
9/8: Hawthorne’s “Rappaccini’s Daughter”
9/10: A Brief History of Short Fiction
9/15: Setting: Calvino’s “All at One Point,” Tolstoy’s “Sevastopol in December,” Mansfield’s “The
Garden Party, Achebe’s “Civil Peace”
9/17: Tone: Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” Kinkead’s “Girl,” Selections from
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
9/22: Voice/Perspective: Kafka’s “Investigations of a Dog” and “Josephine, the Songstress or
The Mouse Folk,” Akutagawa’s “In a Grove”
9/24: Film: Kurosawa’s Rashōmon
9/29: Subjectivity: Machado de Assis’ “The Alienist,” Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” Why I
Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper”
10/1: Technology and Writing Workshop
10/6: Conflict and Plot: Lispector's “The Chicken,” Machado de Assis’ “Father Versus Mother,”
O’Connor’s “Everything that Rises Must Converge,” Chopin’s “
10/8: Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”
Weeks 7-9: Love’s Triumphs & Tragedies
10/13: Genre: Selected Tales from Grimm, Andersen, The Arabian Nights, selections from Lüthi’s
The European Folktale: Form and Nature
10/15: Genre Revision: Selected stories by Hopkinson, Carter, Hurston
10/20: Figurative Language: Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” “
10/22: d’Aurivilley’s “Happiness in Crime,” Zamyatin’s “The Cave”
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10/27: Film and Short Fiction: Munro’s “The Bear Went over the Mountain,” “Proulx’s
“Brokeback Mountain”
10/29: Film: Polley’s Away from Her
Weeks 10-12: The Unexplained: Detectives, Mad Men, and the Supernatural
11/3: Historicity: Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue, Chekhov’s “The Swedish Match,”
Brandão’s “Monday’s Heads”
11/5: Library Research and Writing Workshop
11/10: Reliability: Lu Xun’s “Diary of a Madman,” Machado de Assis’ “The Mirror,” Cortázar’s
“Continuity of Parks”
11/12: Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown,” Lispector’s “The Smallest Woman in the World,”
selections by Borges.
11/17: Magic Realism and Surrealism: Gogol’s “The Nose,” Kafka’s “The Hunger Artist” and “A
Report to an Academy”
11/19: Murakami’s “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo,” Marquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous
Wings” and “The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World”
Week 14-16: Frontiers of Short Fiction
11/24: Micro Fiction Selections
11/26: Attend FRIDAY Classes
12/1: TBD based on class interests
12/3: TBD based on class interests
12/8: Graphic Fiction: Selections from Maus, Persepolis, Barefoot Gen, TBD
12/10: Conclusions
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