English 301-01, 02: Prose (Section 01: 1/10-2/28; Section 02: 3/13-4/24)
Spring 2000: Mondays and Wednesdays, 2-3:15
Dr. Mangum (307 Anderson House; 828-1255; bmangum@saturn.vcu.edu)I. Text (available through the Carriage House):
The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction, ed. Ann Charters. 5th
Edition. Boston: Bedford Books, 1999.II. Course Description and Objectives
By definition, all writing that is not poetry is prose. In order to help you develop skills that will make you a better reader of prose we are limiting our focus in this seven-week course to the study of short, prose fiction. Although the genre of the short story has its own history and its particular conventions--both of which we will address in some detail in this course--the skills and vocabulary that you develop in studying short fiction will be transferable to other forms of prose, such as the novel, the play, and the essay; ultimately, not inconceivably, even to poetry and other forms of verbal and non-verbal communication as well. The general objective of the course, therefore, is to help you become a more careful, more sensitive reader and to provide strategies that will enable you effectively to communicate in essay form your observations about texts you have read.III. Written Assignments:The specific components of the course that we will use to accomplish this general objective are as follows:
A. Close reading and discussion of fifteen to twenty short stories and additional essays related specifically to particular stories, subdivided into (1)individual stories and (2)case studies;B. A study of the history of the short story and its conventions with particular emphasis on basic elements of fiction such as plot, character, setting, point of view, style and voice, symbolism and allegory, and theme;
C. A review of strategies that can be used in writing essays about fiction, among them explication, analysis, comparison and contrast, other perspectives.
A. Assorted short, written responses to specific questions (10% of course grade)
B. Three short papers (2-3 pages), sharply focussed on a specific aspect of a particular short story (each to count approximately 16% of course grade)
C. One longer (6-plus), end-of-term paper which will involve either (1)a comparison/contrast of two stories or (2)the application of theory or "outside" information to the analysis of a single story (40% of course grade).
IV. Daily Assignment Sheet to Follow