This module provides a survey of the American short story from the early 19^th century to the present day. The Irish writer Frank O’Connor once remarked that ‘the Americans have handled the short story so wonderfully that one can say that it is a national art form’. The module will chart the development of the American short story more or less chronologically as an intersection of literary form and national identity. The short story is a form that lends itself to idiosyncrasy and experimentation, and each generation of American writers has attempted to expand the boundaries of the form while simultaneously returning to a set of abiding concerns. Some of the themes we will be covering include: wilderness and isolation, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, war and historical experience. The stories we will be reading span a range of styles from social realism to Gothic and the ‘weird tale’. The module will enable students to acquire a critically informed appreciation of how this stylistic and thematic diversity is grounded in the persistence of the ‘American idea’.

-Understand the American short story as a national form.

-Articulate the varieties of form and content that have marked the evolution of the American short story from the 19^th century to the present day.

-Analyse the work of major American authors in terms of relevant social and historical contexts.

-Identify the central characteristics of the short story as a literary form.

The module will be delivered via two lectures a week and two one-hour seminars towards the end of the semester.

Transferable skills to be gained from this module include the ability to perform close analysis of literary texts with particular attention to form and national contexts. Students will hone key critical thinking skills by analysing a wide variety of texts by major authors and will develop their ability to work effectively with peers in seminar discussions and group work.

One 3200 word essay.

THE POTENTIAL FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:

In accordance with University regulations, students are allowed two attempts at retrieval of any failed essay, for a maximum module mark of 40%.  Resit assessments are held over the summer.

Week 1: Introduction

Week 2: Missing Men
Washington Irving, ‘Rip Van Winkle’; William Austin, ‘Peter Rugg, the Missing Man’.

Week 3: Gender Divisions
Herman Melville, ‘The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids’; Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, ‘Old Woman Magoun’.  

Week 4: Into the Wild
Sarah Orne Jewett, ‘A White Heron’; Jack London, ‘In a Far Country’.

Week 5: From Gothic to Weird
Edgar Allan Poe, ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’; H.P. Lovecraft, ‘The Rats in the Walls’.

Week 6: Reading Week

Week 7: Racial Tensions
William Faulkner, ‘That Evening Sun’; Eudora Welty, ‘Where Is the Voice Coming From?’.

Week 8: Black Identities
Richard Wright, ‘The Man Who Was Almost a Man’; James Baldwin, ‘Sonny’s Blues’.

Week 9: Casualties of War 
Tim O’Brien, ‘The Things They Carried’; Cynthia Ozick, ‘The Shawl’.

Week 10: Ethnicities
Louise Erdrich, ‘Fleur’; Ha Jin, ‘Children as Enemies’.  

Week 11: Conclusion

Primary Text:

Joyce Carol Oates, ed., The Oxford Book of American Short Stories (2013)

Further information about recommended reading will be provided at the start of the module.