LIT 3024 Spring 2022 Ortega

This course will provide an overview of the short story genre by focusing not only on different elements that construct a short story – such as form, narrative voice, plot, setting, conflict, characters, and so on – but also engaging in thoughtful discussion of these stories in connection with history, politics, race, class, gender and sexuality, and other topics. The first half of the course will focus on teaching students to identify tone, narration, form, theme, characterization, and other formal aspects of short fiction. Students will be encouraged to formulate their own interpretation of the works we read based on their developing ability to recognize the decisions each author has made in constructing the text. The second half of the course will examine genres which do not conform to conventional elements, such as the subgenres within the realm of speculative fiction. We will look at dystopian short stories to examine different forms of alterity, or otherness, and the way fiction allows us to examine, approach, and analyze it. This class will require active engagement in class discussions, presentations, and close reading and analysis, among other reading and writing activities.

This course meets the Cross-Cultural Studies (x) requirement for Liberal Studies.