Spring 2024 Writing UN2110 section 001

APPROACHES TO THE SHORT STORY

APPROACHES TO THE SHORT S

Call Number 15119
Day & Time
Location
R 12:10pm-2:00pm
511 Kent Hall
Points 3
Grading Mode Standard
Approvals Required None
Instructor Ronald L Jr. Robertson
Type SEMINAR
Method of Instruction In-Person
Course Description

The modern short story has gone through many transformations, and the innovations of its practitioners have often pointed the way for prose fiction as a whole. The short story has been seized upon and refreshed by diverse cultures and aesthetic affiliations, so that perhaps the only stable definition of the form remains the famous one advanced by Poe, one of its early masters, as a work of fiction that can be read in one sitting. Still, common elements of the form have emerged over the last century and this course will study them, including Point of View, Plot, Character, Setting and Theme. John Hawkes once famously called these last four elements the "enemies of the novel," and many short story writers have seen them as hindrances as well. Hawkes later recanted, though some writers would still agree with his earlier assessment, and this course will examine the successful strategies of great writers across the spectrum of short story practice, from traditional approaches to more radical solutions, keeping in mind how one period's revolution -Hemingway, for example - becomes a later era's mainstream or "commonsense" storytelling mode. By reading the work of major writers from a writer's perspective, we will examine the myriad techniques employed for what is finally a common goal: to make readers feel. Short writing exercises will help us explore the exhilarating subtleties of these elements and how the effects created by their manipulation or even outright absence power our most compelling fictions.

Web Site Vergil
Department Writing
Enrollment 16 students (15 max) as of 9:05PM Wednesday, December 11, 2024
Status Full
Subject Writing
Number UN2110
Section 001
Division Interfaculty
Fee $15 Creative Writing C
Section key 20241WRIT2110W001