English 165

Other Readings and Media

Joyce, J: Dubliners; Hemingway, E: The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition; Kafka, F: The Metamorphosis, in the Penal Colony, and Other Stories (Muir); Borges, J: Ficciones (Kerrigan)

Description

The Reading and writing assignments--linked with the lectures and class discussions--are intended to develop students’ ability to analyze, understand, and interpret four great masters of the short story: Joyce, Hemingway, Kafka, and Borges. (The latter two will be read in translation.) Special emphasis will be placed on the techniques each writer deployed in his stories and how they work in delivering the content for each author.

These masterworks provided some basic tools that have shaped all of modern and contemporary fiction. Students will be expected to read and study these stories deeply and come to class prepared to discuss them. Papers will concentrate, not merely on what the tales are about, but how they function.

This course is open to English majors only.