American Short Story

OFFICE HOURS: Tues-Thurs.12:30-2:30 PM & by appt. ML 224, x.3297	Sadoff, English 353 THE AMERICAN SHORT STORY email isadoff@Colby.edu
Class 1 Sept. 3RD	Introduction and History Carson McCullers, "The Jockey" (handout)
Class 2 Sept. 8	Hawthorne, "The Birthmark," p.500 "Young Goodman Brown"p.526 Supp. The Minister’s Black Veil" http://www.bnl.com/shorts/veilhawt.html http://www.online-literature.com/hawthorne/ "The Maypole of Merrymount" http://www.online-literature.com/hawthorne/145/
Class 3 Sept. 10	Poe, "William Wilson," http://www.geocities.com/short_stories_page/poewilson.html "Tell Tale Heart" http://www.geocities.com/short_stories_page/poetelltale.html Supp. "The Purloined Letter," p.1181
Class 4 Sept. 15^th	Bibb, "Conjuration," http://vi.uh.edu/pages/mintz/25.htm Frederick Douglass "Cowardice Departed, Bold Defiance Took Its Place" http://vi.uh.edu/pages/mintz/31.htm Supp. "Chopin, "Desiree’s Baby," p.306 Craft Memoir, excerpt (reserve)
Class 5 Sept. 17	Gilman, "Yellow Wallpaper…" http://www.geocities.com/short_stories_page/gilmanwallpaper.html Chopin, "A Respectable Woman," http://www.geocities.com/short_stories_page/chopinrespectable.html Supp Jewett, "A White Heron," P.647 Reserve: Showalter, THE FEMALE MALADY (Intro, And Chapter 6."Feminism And Hysteria) Dickinson poem, " "I cannot Dance" #326
Class 6 Sept. 22	Herman Melville, "Bartleby the Scrivener"p.898
Class 7 Sept. 24	Anderson, "Hands," p. 13, Fitzgerald links -- http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~tdlarson/fsf/links.htm Fitzgerald, "Bernice Bobs Her Hair," http://www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/bernice/index.html- Supp. Anderson, "The Egg,"p.6 "I Want to Know Why," http://www.geocities.com/short_stories_page/andersonknowwhy.html further Anderson stories on http://www.geocities.com/short_stories_page/
Class 8 Sept. 29	Fitzgerald, "Winter Dreams," "A Diamond as Big as the Ritz." http://www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/winterd/index.html http://www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/diamond/index.html Supp. "The Ice Palace," http://www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/icepalace/index.html http://www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/head/index.html
Class 9 Oct. 1st	Hemingway, "A Clean Well-Lighted Place," "Cat in the Rain" Hemingway Links http://home.eol.ca/~command/hem.htm http://www.geocities.com/cyber_explorer99/hemingwaycleanplace.html http://www.geocities.com/cyber_explorer99/hemingwaycat.html
Class 10 Oct.6	Hemingway "The Killers," "Hills like White Elephants," Links http://www.geocities.com/cyber_explorer99/hemingwaykillers.html http://www.geocities.com/cyber_explorer99/hemingwayhills.html "Big Two Hearted River, parts 1 & 2p.543,549
Class 11 Oct.8th	Hughes, "The Slave on the Block" (reserve) Hurston. "’Member Youse is a Nigger," http://i.am/zorahurston 'member yousea nigger Supp. Hurston, "The Gilded Six-Bits," ""Sweat," p.575 Chestnutt, "The Sheriff’s Children," http://www.geocities.com/short_stories_page/chesnuttsheriff.html
Class 12 Oct.13th	O’Connor, "Everything that Rises Must Converge," p.1064 Good Country People," p.1076
Class 13 Oct. 15	O’Connor, "A Good Man is Hard to Find"p.1091 "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" p.1103 Other O’Connor Stories, "Parker’s Back," "Revelation"
Oct.20	FALL BREAK
Class 14 Oct.22nd	Updike, "Separating," p. 1260 "The A& P," http://www.tiger-town.com/whatnot/updike/ Supp. Wife-wooing," p. 1268 "Pygmalion," http://www.geocities.com/su_englit/updike_pygmalion.html
Class 15 Oct.27	Cheever, "The Wrysons," (reserve) "The Enormous Radio," p.243 "The Five Forty-Eight" p.251 other Cheever, " "The Lowboy," "The Country Husband,"
Class 16 Oct.29	Baldwin, "Sonny’s Blues,"p.71 Supp. Wright, "The Black Good Man," p.1385 "The Man Who was Almost a man" p. 1385 Alice Walker, "1955"p.625 Bambara, "Raymond’s Run," p.46
Class 17 Nov.3rd	Roth, "The Conversion of the Jews," Malamud, "The Magic barrel," http://www.geocities.com/su_englit/roth_conversion.html http://www.geocities.com/su_englit/malamud_barrel.html supp. Ozick,"The Shawl,"p.516 supp. Sherman Alexie, "This is What it Means…" p.21
Class 18 Nov.5	O’Brien, "The Things They Carried," p.501 Leavitt, "Territory," p.411 Supp. Canin, "The Year of Getting to Know Us" p.193
Class 19 Nov.10	Carver, "Cathedral," p.182 "What We Talk About…"(reserve) Supp. "Errand," "The Neighbors," "Popular Mechanics," "Vitamins" http://www.geocities.com/su_englit/carver_popular.html http://www.geocities.com/su_englit/carver_vitamins.html
Class 20 Nov.12	Carver continued plus "What’s in Alaska," (reserve) Supp. Joy Williams, "Taking Care," p.659 Vaughn, "Able, baker, Charlie, Dog," p.612
Class 21 Nov.17	Erdrich, "Saint Marie,"p.276 Bloom, "Silver Water," p.159 Supp. Baxter, "Gryphon" p.131 Sherman Alexie, "This is What it Means…" p.21
Class 22 Nov.19	Banks, "Sarah Cole: a Type of Love Story," p.53 Kincaid, "Girl," p.409
CLASS 23. Nov.24th	Oates," "How I Contemplated the World…" p. 1037 Supp. Oates, "Shopping," p.1049 "Ghost Girls," p.488 Braverman, "Tall tales from the Meikong Delta," p.167<
	THANKSGIVING
Class 24 Dec.1^stPostmodernism	Paley, "A Conversation with my Father," p.1147 Barthelme, "Me and Miss Mandible," http://www.coldbacon.com/writing/barthelme-mandible.html Supp. Paley, "The Loudest Voice,"p.1151, Barthelme, "Basil in the garden," p.101
Class 25 Dec.3rd	Barth, "Lost in the Funhouse," http://www.colby.edu/~isadoff/ss/barth.doc http://www.barksdale.latech.edu/Engl 308/
Websites for stories include: www.geocities.com/short_stories_page/	Expectations: I direct the class as a discussion group, a community of learners, so students are expected to prepare the poems before coming to class, including bringing questions to stimulate interchange among students. Always bring your texts to class (print outs too): we'll refer to them all the time. Class discussion counts as part of class grade. Students are expected to attend and contribute to all classes; you'll be permitted two unexcused absences during a semester. Requirements: You'll write two 6-7 page papers comparing and contrasting two stories by the above authors (NOT discussed in class), and one final take-home synthesizing paper. Each of these papers will count 25% of your grade. Students will be allowed one extension if they give at least 48 hours advance notice. Unexcused late papers will be penalized. I will not accept any papers after the last day of class. Additionally, every Monday by 9 A.M. students will write a paragraph on our class forum, responding to a question that will create a dialogue and help structure thinking about stories under discussion. Students should respond to one another, argue, quote freely from texts; if you respond early you might check the forums to see if you want to supplement your earlier responses. The responses will not be graded individually, but collectively will be worth 25% of your grade. If you miss more than one forum response, your grade will suffer. If your early responses don’t respond sufficiently with specificity to the text, I will probably email you with advice or ask you to come in for conference so I can help. Late responses, because the work will have been discussed in class, cannot be counted. http://www.colby.edu/info.tech/forums/clogin/?confId=1&forumId=115 make sure you log off the thread when you’re finished so someone else can enter the dialogue. For those of you steeped in theory, you can substitute one longer 12-15 page paper for the shorter ones: for such an ambitious project, I will want to see a thesis paragraph well in advance of the due date. This syllabus is a course plan, but inevitably, as issues are raised in class, and as time grows short, assignments will change; if you miss class discussion, check with other class members about potential changes.

Sadoff, English 353