ENGL 232: Storytelling: Short Stories

Course Description

This course explores a selection of short stories - some funny, some heartbreaking, some morose, and some creepy - that will help us scrutinize the art of great storytelling. We will explore how authors use different imaginative techniques to craft their fictive worlds and their perspectives on human experience. We will consider the socio-cultural contexts of stories, why readers might interpret stories in different ways, and what individual stories reveal about the authors who produced them and the readers who feel compelled to read them. Students will acquire the basic critical vocabulary used to discuss fiction and will have opportunities to apply the varied literary techniques from our texts in their own creative engagements. (F, W).