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Narratives: The Short Story
“One of the greatest functions of art is to help us imagine what it is to be like not ourselves, what it is like to be someone or something else, what it is like to live in another skin, what it is like to live in another body, and in that sense to surpass ourselves, to go out beyond ourselves.”
–Adrienne Rich
At its most basic, this course is designed to explore the influence and importance of storytelling, taking as its premise the idea that the art of storytelling extends beyond simple social behavior to create a mode of thoughtfully and intellectually engaging society and components of identity and culture. As such, students will read a variety of short stories from both classic and contemporary writers, and together, we’ll discuss the ways in which their authors employ literary elements to evidence these historical, cultural, and social issues in an efficient and artful manner. In particular, we’ll ask of each text the following: how does the short story transcend place and time to take on universal meaning, what literary elements help shape it and, more importantly, how does the story create meaning from art? In short: we’ll be trying to figure out how, exactly, short stories function and why, but it is my hope, more than anything, that you’ll use this class as an opportunity to consider, fight, and question the world around you. This course features readings by men, women, and non-binary authors as well as writers from a variety of diverse backgrounds and identities, including LGBTQIA+, African American, Latino and Native authors; I believe this is an integral feature of a contemporary American literature class, and I welcome any additional reading recommendations or suggestions you may have for future iterations of this course.
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