ENGL 631: Form & Theory of Fiction
Prof. Stephen-Paul Martin
AL 253/619-594-8434/Email: Blackboard
Catalogue Description: Fiction as a literary form. May be repeated with new content.
Maximum credit six units applicable to an M.F.A. degree in creative writing.
Course Description: What does it mean to read fiction? How do answers to this question
contribute to the process of writing fiction? These will be the issues we will address this
semester. We will read and discuss various short stories, novellas, and novels, you will
select a short story and discuss it with the class, and you will end the semester by
submitting to me a work of fiction (10-25 pp).
Assigned Texts:
Class Reader (available at Cal Copy, on College Avenue, behind Domino’s Pizza)
Jennifer Egan, A Visit from The Goon Squad
Percival Everett, Erasure
Lance Olsen, 10:01
J.M. Coetzee, The Lives of Animals
Partik Ourednik, Europeana
Schedule:
8/27—Introduction (Poulet-The Rule of Names)
9/3—Short fiction (Davis-Kim)
9/10—Short fiction (Le-Wideman)
9/17—Short Fiction (Saunders-Thiep)
9/24—Egan
10/1—Egan
10/8—Everett
10/15—Everett
10/22—Olsen
10/29—Coetzee
11/5—Ourednik
11/12—Presentations
11/19—Presentations
12/3—Presentations
12/10—Presentations
Grades:
Class participation: 30%
Presentation: 30%
Story: 40%
Note: If you don’t like talking in class, you can submit a journal of responses to assigned
readings. See me in my office if you prefer this option.
Presentations: You will select a short story and distribute it to the class. We will all read
it and a week later you will lead a class discussion based on your selected story. We will
all be prepared to support and contribute to your discussion. You will model your
presentation on a sample presentation I will give on November 5, though you can
certainly develop your own approach if you don’t want to follow mine exactly. The
presentation should last about 30 minutes, including discussion. The story should be
contemporary, published in the last two decades (1990-2014) by a living writer we have
not already studied in class.