English 402: Advanced Creative Writing: Short Fiction
Professor: Hans Ostrom Spring 2010/Wyatt 306, 10:00-10:50 a.m.
Welcome to English 402.
Office: 328 Howarth Hall. Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 2:00-3:30 p.m., and by appointment.
Electronic mail: ostrom@pugetsound.edu. (I prefer that you don’t send me assigned work via email.) The English Department’s mailboxes are located in the room next to the Philosophy Department’s main office on the third floor of Wyatt Hall.
Home page: www.ups.edu/faculty/ostrom/. A printable copy of this syllabus is posted on this home page.
The University’s Equal Opportunity Statement
The University of Puget Sound does not discriminate in education or employment on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, religion, creed, age, disability, marital or familial status, sexual orientation, Vietnam-era veteran status, gender identity, or any other basis prohibited by local, state, or federal laws. This policy complies with the spirit and the letter of applicable federal, state and local laws, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Questions about the policy may be referred to the University's Director of Human Resources and Affirmative Action (253-879-3116) or the Office of Civil Rights, Department of Education, Washington, D.C. 20202.
Objectives of the Course
If you have any questions about the objectives, guidelines, structure, required books, or assignments of the course, please let me know.
In English 202 (the prerequisite for taking English 402), you learned more about how short fiction is its own literary form, distinct from novels, poems, and plays but sharing territory with them. You also learned more about your own writing of short stories—what your strengths, challenges, and predilections are.
In English 402 one purpose will be to explore the distinctness and the shared genre-territory, and other purposes will be to produce your own short stories, get responses to them and to drafts of them, and to experiment with new possibilities: to develop as writers. Another purpose of English 402 is to create a venue in which you may work hard and with pleasure to understand the art of short fiction better, as both a writer and a reader, for short stories are something you might read—and write—for years to come.
Specifically, the course will concentrate on literary short fiction, broadly defined but based in traditions of short fiction that arose in the 19th century and have developed into the 21st. With regard to stories you write, fantasy, action, detective, and horror stories are types of fiction you may want to explore in other venues. These genres aren’t necessarily off limits, we will likely read works that belong to some of them, and what we study will transfer to these genres, but literary fiction is our métier. In any event, we will explore the opportunities and productive problems associated with the short story, which calls for brevity and precision.
To write much; to read a wide variety of stories and experiment with different critical lenses with which to interpret short fiction; to experiment with different narrative methods; to explore narrative theory; to build on your experience writing stories; to give, take, and use responses to work-in-progress; to ponder the mysteries of "fiction": these are some other purposes of this course.
You’ll write several substantial short stories—in the range of 5-15 pages; you’ll also write several very short stories—in the range of 250-600 words: these are sometimes called micro-stories or flash-fiction. Flash fiction can stand alone as its own literary art form, but it may also suggest one of the substantial stories to you. The portfolio submitted at the end of the term will contain revised versions of these shorter and longer pieces.
We will also write in class frequently as a way to practice technique, explore elements of short fiction, generate discussion, and stay in writerly shape. Often I’ll invite you to determine or refine the prompts for in-class writing, and in most cases, I’ll write, too.
The Etiquette and Atmosphere of the Course
Here are some guidelines to which all of us should adhere. None of them will be surprising or difficult, but sometimes it’s good to reaffirm the familiar. All are aimed at creating a productive, workable environment.
Please do attend class unless you are ill or otherwise indisposed, and please do arrive on time. Attendance guidelines: Each absence after the third one will start to erode your final grade. Each late arrival after the third one counts as an absence.
To some degree, a college classroom has become an old fashioned, counter-cultural space that asks us to lengthen our attention-spans when the culture at large seeks to shorten them. Please do listen while others are talking. Although conversations on the side are usually not intended to be rude or disruptive, they can have that effect. Respect each other and yourselves.
Before class begins, please turn off the electronic devices; no doubt you’re already accustomed to this. If you use a lap-top computer in class, please use it only to take notes, not to get on the Internet or otherwise distract yourself and others. Please do not habitually get up and leave class. I realize that, every so often, one needs to leave class for a few minutes. But more than every so often is not appropriate.
Please do your best. The more each of us contributes to the course, the more each of us will get out of it. Please do not plagiarize.
Please turn in work and complete reading-assignments on time. But also please ask me to clarify assignments and guidelines if they are unclear, and please let me know if an illness or an emergency has prevented you from completing your work on time.
Please do acquire the books required for the course, read them according to the syllabus, and bring them to class on the appropriate days. Acquire the editions I’ve ordered through the bookstore, even if you do not buy them at the bookstore. If you are accustomed not to acquiring all the books for a course, this section of English 402 is probably not a good fit for you.
Please don’t eat in class (every professor has his or her pet-peeves); a cup of coffee (for example) is fine, however.
The Workshop
A significant of the course will be devoted to the close reading, by your peers, of your work-in-progress. I’ll set out guidelines for how we do this. The workshop method isn’t for everyone, but by staying in the course, you implicitly agree to participate actively and productively in this method of response and revision. The main thing is to respond to stories fairly and with discernment and respect. In most cases, we’ll work in relatively smaller groups—as opposed to a full-class workshop—because doing so represents a more efficient use of time. Of course, I will read (and comment on) your stories, too, and I’ll often sit in with a group.
How to submit your stories to me: In a plain folder, with the most recent draft of the story on top, paper-clipped, and drafts of or notes for the story underneath. Please do submit rough drafts and notes with your more polished version. Thank you.
The Portfolio
You’ll take three stories through the workshop, revising them before, during, and after the presentation to your group. At the end of the term, you will submit two of these in a portfolio, along with at least two pieces of flash fiction.
Probably, you’ll write four pieces of flash fiction, in which case you may drop one or two from the portfolio, and you’ll have the flexibility to expand one piece into a longer story. The portfolio is the work I will evaluate formally, though of course I will be reading and commenting on your drafts all along.
As you’ll see from the schedule below, there is a rhythm to this course, with intervals of reading and writing, class discussion and group work, and so on. There is a plan for the whole term, but there is, by design, plenty of room for flexibility. Bring the syllabus to class with you every time so that you may note any changes.
Books for the Course
Rust Hills, Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular. Mariner Books, 2000. (First edition, 1977).
James Thomas, Denise Thomas, & Tom Hazuka, Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories. W.W. Norton, 1992.
Dana Gioia and R.S. Gwynn, editors. The Art of the Short Story. Pearson/Longman, 2006.
Briefly, About the Professor
Sometimes students want to know a bit about the professor; in a paragraph, here’s a bit: I’ve taught literature and creative writing at the University of Puget Sound for quite some time. I’ve published short stories and a novel and edited a collection of short stories (Lives and Moments: An Introduction to Short Fiction). I’m a co-author of Metro: Journeys in Writing Creatively (Longman, 2001), a textbook. I also published a book of criticism about Langston Hughes’s short fiction. So I’ve worked with short fiction as a writer, critic, and scholar.
Approximate Breakdown of Elements on Which Your Grade Will Be Based.
Portfolio: 50 per cent.
Participation (showing up; being productive; doing the reading and writing; contributing to discussions; participating in group work; meeting deadlines for drafts): 30 per cent.
Tests (which will ask you to analyze and synthesize the short fiction we have read and ideas & terms from other material we read): 20 per cent, total
See an opportunity for extra credit on p. 7.
Schedule for Class-Meetings, Reading, Deadlines, Etc.
Although this schedule covers the whole semester and is detailed, it is also subject to change. I will put a copy of it on my homepage.
Guide to abbreviations: RH: Rust Hills, Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular; FF: Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories; ART: The Art of the Short Story.
Wednesday, January 20. Overview of the course. Please read the syllabus carefully, decide if the course is a good fit for you, and see if you have any questions. In class, we’ll pool some of the knowledge and experience you gained in English 202 (or a similar course), we’ll define “the short story” for our purposes, and we will do some writing.
Friday, January 22. Please read RH through page 19. Defining the short story (v. the novel), fixed v. moving action, and epiphany. In ART, please read “Araby” by James Joyce.
Monday, January 25. A typed draft of flash fiction is due—no longer than 310 words. In FF, please read “Brilliant Silence” and “Roseville.”
Wednesday, January 27. For today, please read, in ART, Anton Chekhov’s “Misery,” and in FF, please read Margaret Atwood’s “Bread.”
Friday, January 29. Revised piece of flash fiction due. Please read RH through p. 37. In FF, please read “The Haircut.” Note that your first longer story is due in a week.
Monday, February 1. For today, please read RH through p. 49. In FF, please read “Mr. Mumsford” and “Mandy Shupe.”
Wednesday, February 3. Some typed pages of your first story due. At least 5? Review guidelines for group work.
Friday, February 5. First story due. Submit it to me in a folder, clipped, with the rough draft(s), please. Make a copy from which to read and 3-4 additional copies. You will work in groups of five.
Monday, February 8. Group work.
Wednesday, February 10. Group work. For today, in ART, please read “The Swimmer,” by John Cheever, as well as Cheever’s comments.
Friday, February 12. For today, in FF, please read “Deportation at Breakfast” and “A Moment in the Sun Field.”
Monday, February 15. A piece of flash fiction is due. In addition to having a copy from which to read, make two other copies, please.
Wednesday, February 17. For today, in RH, please read through p. 69. What makes us think we know people?
Friday, February 19. In ART, please read “A Party Down at the Square,” by Ralph Ellison, as well as Ellison’s note. Consider the main action of Ellison’s story and the risks and opportunities of writing about such things. Also consider the story’s narrator.
Monday, February 22. Please turn in a revised version of your second piece of flash fiction. In RH, please read through p. 86. Photocopied material about “time” distributed. In FF, please read “Wedding Night,” “Girl,” and “Love Poems.”
Wednesday, February 24. In RH, please read through 117.
Friday, February 26. For today, please bring some pages of your second longer story.
Monday, March 1.For today, please read RH through p. 140, and please bring the draft of your second story.
Wednesday, March 3. Second longer story due—in a folder, with a rough draft. Make a copy from which to read and at least 3 other copies. Group work.
Friday, March 5. Group work.
Monday, March 8. Group work.
Wednesday, March 10. For today, please read “The One Sitting There” and “Crossing Spider Creek” in FF. Review for test.
Friday, March 12. Test.
Spring Break
Monday, March 22. Field trip. Bring your notebook; we’ll do some writing. Material from Frank O’Connor distributed.
Wednesday, March 24. For today, please read “The Overcoat,” by Gogol, and “A Haunted House,” by Woolf, in ART, and the O’Connor material.
Friday, March 26. A piece of flash fiction is due, no longer than 515 words. Bring an extra copy, please.
Monday, March 29. For today, please read RH through 158.
Wednesday, 31. Revised piece of flash fiction due.
Friday, April 2. For today, please read “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin.
Monday, April 5. For today, bring in some pages of your third longer story.
Wednesday, April 7. For today, please read RH through 178 (and beyond, to the end, if you are so inclined).
Friday, April 9. Your third longer story is due—in a folder, with a rough draft. Make a copy from which to read and at least 3 copies for the group.
Monday, April 12. Group work.
Wednesday, April 14. Group work.
Friday, April 16. Either group work or a field trip.
Monday, April 19. For today, please read Doris Lessing, “A Woman on a Roof,” in ART, and in FF, please read “Water.”
Wednesday, April 21. For today, please select a story from FF that we have not read for class, read it, and make some notes.
Friday, April 23. For today, bring in a list of non-literary forms of communication that might be adapted for a piece of flash fiction. Examples include email, text-messaging, and a campaign speech. See if you can generate a list of 10. Concerning Monday.
Monday, April 26. Everything you always wanted to know about publishing but haven’t gotten around to asking yet.
Wednesday, April 28. A piece of flash fiction is due. Make an extra copy.
Friday, April 29. Discussing the portfolio. Review for test.
Monday, May 3. Test.
Wednesday, May 5. Field trip.
Portfolio is due at 9:45 a.m. on Wednesday, May 12, in the room scheduled for the final examination.
List of Extra Stories from The Art of the Short Story
Here is a brief list of stories that students of the form ought to read, and indeed, you may have read them in the introductory class. Especially if you haven’t read one or more of them, you may—for extra credit—read a story and make a brief report about to me during office hours. You may repeat the extra credit once (for a total of two instances), but please don’t wait until the last weeks of the term to complete this extra credit, which is, as the name implies, entirely voluntary.
Jorge Luis Borges, “The Garden of Forking Paths”
Willa Cather, “Paul’s Case”
Joseph Conrad, “The Secret Sharer”
Zora Neale Hurston, “Sweat”
Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery”
Henry James, “The Real Thing”
James Joyce, “The Dead”
Katherine Anne Porter, “Flowering Judas”
Leo Tolstoy, “The Death of Ivan Ilych”
Terminology Useful to Writing and Reading Short Stories
Absurdism
A-chronological Plot
Action
Allusion
Antagonist
Anti-Story
Arc
Beats, as in Easy Beats
Believable
Character
Chronological Plot
Class (as in Social Class)
Climax
Closure
Collective Narrator
Conflict
Convention/Conventional
Crisis
Demotic
Dénouement
Dialect
Dialogue
Dialogue-tag
Edit (v. Revise)
Effect
Epiphany
Epistolary Form
First-Person Narrator
Fixed Action
Flashback
Flat Characterization
Folk Tradition
Foreshadowing
Frame Story
Genre-Fiction, a.k.a. Category-Fiction
Gothic (and Southern Gothic)
Hero/Heroic
Historical Fiction
Historical Present Tense
Homage
Interior Monologue
Magical Realism
Master Narrative (a kind of myth)
Meta-Fiction
Modernism
Motivation
Moving Action
Myth
Narrator
Naturalism
Non-Literary Form (such as a list, which a writer may turn into a literary form)
Omniscient Narrator
Pace
Parody
Past Perfect Tense
Past Tense
Pastiche
Plausibility
Plot
Point of View
Post-Modernism
Post-Structuralism
Predictable
Protagonist
Psychological Realism
Realism
Reportorial (as in Reportorial Point of View)
Resolution
Revise (v. Edit)
Scene
Satire
Sentimentality
Setting
Short Story (v. Novel, Novella, and Tale)
Stereotypical
Story (v. Plot)
Stream of Consciousness
Stretch
Structuralism
Submerged Population
Suspense
Summary
Surprise
Surrealism
Symbol
Symbol
Tension
Unreliability
Voice
Writers Important to the History of Short Fiction
(. . . From the 19th century forward; selected, of course.)
Borges, Jorge Luis
Brautigan, Richard
Böll, Heinrich
Callaghan, Morley
Calvino, Italo
Carver, Raymond
Cheever, John
Chekhov, Anton
Cortázar, Julio
Crane, Stephen
De Maupassant, Guy
Faulkner, William
Gogol, Nikolai
Hemingway, Ernest
Hughes, Langston
Hurston, Zora Neale
Jackson, Shirley
James, Henry
Joyce, James
Kafka, Franz
Lawrence, D.H.
Mansfield, Katherine
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia
Munro, Alice
O’Connor, Flannery
O’Connor, Frank
Poe, Edgar Allan
Pritchett, V.S.
Singer, Isaac Beshevis
Strindberg, August
Tolstoy, Leo
Turgenev, Ivan
Updike, John
Valenzuela, Luisa