Spring 2006 Courses

English 394-03: Short Story (Tobeck)

M/W/F 2:20- 3:20 pm, CAR 204

E PLURIBUS UNUM: THE SHORT STORY AS NATIONAL ART FORM

For the first half of this course, we will investigate why the short story, in its historical development, cultural proliferation, and topical concerns, has been described (as by Frank O’Connor) as a “national art form.” We will examine early desires and efforts to master a form that captures a particularly American spirit, as well as texts that interrogate the concept of and faith in such a thing, focusing especially on the democratic—and in many ways troubled—equation of particular and universal (as in e pluribus unum, or “out of many, one”). In the second half of the course, we’ll put stories from elsewhere in the world in dialogue with stories by writers in the U.S., to broaden our analysis of the genre in relation to concepts of nation and identity.

Spring 2006 Course Listings