ENG 304: American Short Story

Essay #1

20%

20%

Participation in Weekly Discussion Boards

30%

Comprehensive Final Exam

30%

Total

100%

Week

SLOs

Readings and Exercises

Assignments

1

1-6

Module 1: Precursors of the American Short Story & The Early Nineteenth Century: 1819 - 1860

• Readings:
• Washington Irving, "Rip Van Winkle”
• Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown”
• Edgar Allen Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado”
• Lydia Maria Child, "Slavery’s Pleasant Homes (Not in textbook, available online.)
• Herman Melville, "Bartleby, the Scrivener"

• Read assigned material
• Participate in Discussions

2

1-6

Module 2: The Late Nineteenth Century: 1861 - 1899

• Readings:
• Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”
• Mark Twain, Private History of the “Jumping Frog” Story
• Bret Harte, "The Luck of Roaring Camp" (Not in textbook, available online.)
• Ambrose Bierce, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”
• Sarah Orne Jewett, "A White Heron”
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper”
• Gilman Casebook

• Read assigned material
• Participate in Discussions

3

1-6

Module 2: The Late Nineteenth Century: 1861 - 1899 (cont.)

• Readings:
• Willa Cather, “Neighbour Rosicky”  (Not in textbook, available online.)
• Kate Chopin, “Desiree’s Baby.” “The Story of an Hour”
• Charles W. Chesnutt, "The Wife of His Youth” (Not in textbook, available online.)
• Stephen Crane, "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” (Not in textbook, available online.)

• Read assigned material
• Participate in Discussions
• Essay #1 Due

4

1-6

Module 3: The Early Twentieth Century: 1900 - 1940

• Readings:
• Edith Wharton, "The Other Two," (Not in textbook, available online.)
• Sherwood Anderson, "Hands”
• Zora Neale Hurston, “The Gilded Six-Bits,” “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,"; “What White Publishers Won’t Print”

• Read assigned material
• Participate in Discussions

5

1-6

Module 3: The Early Twentieth Century: 1900 - 1940 (cont.)

• Readings:
  • William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily,” “The Meaning of ‘A Rose for Emily,"
  • John Steinbeck “The Chrysanthemums”
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Winter Dreams"
  • Ernest Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants”

• Read assigned material
• Participate in Discussions

6

1-6

Module 4: Mid-Twentieth Century

• Readings:
  • Shirley Jackson, "The Lottery," "The Morning of June 28, 1948, and ‘The Lottery’"
  • Flannery O’Connor, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
  • James Baldwin, "Sonny’s Blues
  • Philip Roth, "The Conversion of the Jews"

• Read assigned material
• Participate in Discussions
• Essay #2 Due

7

1-6

Module 5: Mid-Twentieth Century (cont.)

• Readings:
  • John Updike, “A & P”
  • Kurt Vonnegut, "Harrison Bergeron"
  • Tillie Olsen, "I Stand Here Ironing"
  • Richard Wright, "The Man Who Was Almost A Man"
  • John Cheever, "The Swimmer”

• Read assigned material
• Participate in Discussions

8

1-6

Module 5: Late Twentieth Century: 1966 - Present

• Readings:
  • Ursula K. Le Guin “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
  • Toni Cade Bambera “The Lesson”
  • Alice Walker, "Everyday Use”
  • Tim O’Brien, "The Things They Carried"
  • Amy Tan, “Two Kinds”
  • Jhumpa Lahiri, “Interpreter of Maladies”

• Read assigned material
• Participate in Discussions
• Final Exam Due