English 495: The Novella
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English 495—The Novella
Spring 2012
Jerry Gabriel
Office: Montgomery Hall 52
240-895-4236
Office Hours: Friday: 2:30-3:30 and by appointment
gdgabriel@smcm.edu
What is a Novella?
In this course, we will examine what makes a novella tick. We’ll spend some time talking about
what a novella even is—and how it’s different from the novel and the long short story. To this end,
we’ll read a number of exemplary novellas from a wide swath of styles and from a diversity of
periods and places.
We’ll also of course write our own novellas; along the way, we’ll do exercises that will help in this
endeavor. And, through regular workshops, we will provide one another with useful feedback on
our works-in-progress.
Required Texts (mostly available in The Campus Store)
Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, No One Writes to the Colonel (translation from Spanish)
Andrea Barrett, Ship Fever
Tim Krabbe, The Rider (translation from Dutch)
Christine Schutt, Florida
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
Phillip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Joan Silber, The Art of Time in Fiction: As Long as It Takes (this is a late addition to the course and is
not available in The Campus Store; please order it online immediately)
I will photocopy these texts for you:
Katherine Ann Porter, Pale Horse, Pale Rider
Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain
James Baldwin, Sonny’s Blues
Supplies & Costs
You need some sort of slender folder to serve as your writing portfolio—not a big three-ring binder.
In addition to the books, you may be required to make copies of exercises or drafts for the class or
for your group.
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Attendance
Attendance is mandatory in this class. As a seminar-style class, we just don’t get much done if
people are missing all the time. To this end, I am very serious about my attendance policy. Basically,
you get three absences. After that, you lose a third of a letter grade in the class with each absence.
Let me repeat myself: I'm serious about this. So for instance, if you have four absences over the
course of the semester and all of your assignments tally to an A-, you’ll drop a third of a letter grade
and will actually get a B+. Once you miss six classes you fail the course. No exceptions. I just can’t
justify passing someone who has missed five weeks of a fourteen week course.
If you have an on-going medical problem, please see me. I will try to work something out insofar as
that’s possible. Unfortunately, sometimes it's just not; that is, missing nine classes with or without a
medical excuse is still going to compromise your performance severely in the course.
Teams
You have been randomly paired with another class member. In these teams you will be responsible
for leading two of the discussions we will be having about the published novellas and craft essays
we’ll be reading.
If you have problems with your partner, please come see me to talk about it. If you feel like he/she
is not holding up their end of the bargain, it’s important that the problem get addressed. You can
do it, or I can do it. It’s up to you.
Pairs
Furgurson, Jesse Levi
Rockler, Samantha L.
Grein, Katherine Anne
Hausheer, Laura G.
McClelland, Samuel Clark
Dellman, Lauren
Mayer, Melissa Wright
McDowell, Andrew M.
Pasch, Christopher
Watson, Erica Alexis
Young, Michael Erik
Sparacino, Mary Catherine
Guidelines for Discussion Leads
In a short essay for each the texts your team is in charge of, I would like you to:
English 495: The Novella
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1. Draw out key features of the text (plot summary, formal choices such as point of view, verb
tense, structure, general stakes for the characters, aboutness, et cetera).
2. Cite some outside source material about the text that help us “in”—interviews, critical
essays, book reviews.
3. Include biographical material on the author.
I really want you to do this work WITH your partner; I don’t want you to come in to class with no
cohesion to your discussion lead and no idea what your partner has been up to. I would like this to
be a single 500-750 word document that you can read to the class, something that can act as a
springboard for our discussion about the text.
Course Conduct
• All cell phones must be turned off before you enter class.
• In an effort to keep the writing classroom a community of writers in conversation, I do not allow
computers in the classroom. If you have a specific need, please talk to me and we will figure out a
resolution.
• You need to bring to class the text(s) that we are discussing (this includes any texts that I email to
you or post on the wiki, and those that get passed out in class). If you do not have a copy of the
assigned reading—and, worse, haven’t done the reading—you'll got a zero for participation for that
day.
• Do not keep your opinions to yourself. A big part of the success of this course is rooted in the
participation of everyone. In essence, you learn not just from the texts and from me, but from each
other. So it’s vital that you jump in.
Conferences
At least once during the semester, you'll meet with me to discuss your writing. We'll be canceling
class to do this, and missing the meeting is the same as missing a class. I'll ask you to prepare for the
meeting closer to the time. You can of course meet with me any time; just email me to schedule a
time to get together.
Workshopping
Workshop days have a number of ground rules, which we’ll go over early in the semester. When
taking in to account that we’ll also be workshopping some of the exercises we write, you can see
that more than half of our class time will be spent workshopping one another’s work. It is
important, then, that we respect one another in this process. That we come to these interactions
with the best of intentions and that we work very hard to step outside of our “likes” and “dislikes”
to see what the story is actually doing. Here are some very important ground rules for workshop.
Please read them carefully now and again later, when we start workshopping.
The workshop is an opportunity not merely to receive response but also to give it—a form of
practical criticism. Students should read carefully and make notes on all of the material for the
workshop in advance of the discussion. It is disheartening for a student to see fellow-students
writing comments on manuscripts during the workshop discussion. Students should write up a
English 495: The Novella
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page or so of comments before the workshop begins, this page to be given to the person whose
work will be discussed; such comments may be more specifically directed to the work than the
workshop comments offered during the discussion period.
When preparing workshop material, participants should try first to discover the work's intentions,
setting aside for the moment one's own tastes and preferences; toward the end of the discussion
one could raise doubts about the intention--i.e., wouldn't a third person narrator be more effective
for the thematic intent; is the convention chosen too great a limitation--but at least initially, the
reader should try to describe rather than evaluate, and to be open to the premises of the work. To
this end, it is often useful to tell the author what you remembered best about the piece a few hours
(or a few days) after you first read it. Often, a first reading will provoke more questions than
comments--one pleasure of workshop is listening to your questions being answered by other readers.
A second level of engagement with the task is to locate those passages/devices/choices that seem
most effective in pursuit of the work's intent or core. Often the most useful response a writer can
receive is an indication of what is successful, but only after a discussion of the work’s form and
content. Thus, when writing comments, first try to describe the work’s content in relation to the
form chosen for it. A natural extension of this engagement is identifying passages/devices/choices
that seem at cross-purposes with the rest of the work, or not as fully realized, clear, detailed, or
graceful as they need to be. Fourth, workshop groups can be useful in speculating about change or
additions--again, though, not in blind application of the reader's own taste or preference but in
light of the work's deepest purpose.
At all these levels of consideration, comments need to be precise and detailed, offering evidence
from the text to support assertions. A workshop should not be a poll; it is insufficient to say, "I like
the opening of this story," or "I wanted to know more about the narrator"--comments should be
supported by analysis and should be as descriptive as possible, without sliding into jargon.
As faculty leader, I serve not only as an active participant, but as discussion moderator. I usually
wait for students to initiate the conversation but I may intervene to focus or redirect it. I also work
to maintain a balance among the questions that might be raised, related to the work's strengths and
weaknesses, the author's future work, and more abstract matters that the piece might raise.
It is quite important, as well, that students monitor themselves in the crucial balance between
active participation and domination. Some checkpoints might be:

Don't initiate the talk with a small editing point nor a broad challenge to the basic
premises of the piece--a good place to begin is with that first level of engagement:
description of, or a question about, the story's intention/plot/central conflict/tone.

Don't ALWAYS be the first one to speak. New students in particular might be well advised
to listen first for the tone of these conversations. At the same time, a student who never
speaks denies him/herself the chance to learn through articulation, and shows a lack of
generosity to fellow students who speak about his/her work.

While preparing the manuscript, your comments are addressed to the author or to
yourself, but the discussion in class is a dialogue. Members of the group should
address/respond to one another as conversation unfolds yet not belabor points already
covered thoroughly.
English 495: The Novella

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Comments should be about the work at hand and not about the person who wrote it—
writers, above all others, should be most vigilant about the power, privileges, and
protection of the imagination.
In the past, the etiquette of the workshop has required that the author not speak during the
discussion, unless called upon to supply some necessary information, not only to avoid "defense" of
the piece but also to insure that he/she hears what readers take from the page (or have failed to
take). Roughly half way through the discussion, he/she may wish to ask questions of the group or
request a brief summary of the response--or to re-direct the discussion. It may be more useful to
experiment with the author's participation: to ask questions, raise issues, or redirect the discussion.
A workshop may be frustrating if there has been wide disagreement or if s/he feels especially
attached to/vulnerable about the piece. The "buddy system" often helps--singling out some other
member of the workshop to ask, a few hours or a day or so after the workshop, for a summary of
what was said--or reviewing the criticism with the instructor. Sometimes a comment later will open
a window, suggest a new way of thinking about the piece; sometimes, the group has misnamed but
nevertheless located a weakness, and this attention prompts you to a greater clarity of purpose;
most often, what you learn from the discussion will be made manifest less in the piece discussed
but in new work.
The tone of the workshop should be supportive but rigorous, analytical but not judgmental,
noncompetitive, vigilant against workshop jargon or preferred aesthetic strategies. Everyone should
try to put their egos away. Participants should always feel free to question what seem weaknesses,
poor choices or inadvertent missteps, but should also recall that the piece has been snatched from
the desktop to which it will return, that some of its awkwardness may be the absence of authority
that attends most work-in-progress, that it does not seek to represent the author's best or finished
work. Everything is a draft, always.
A Word about Pulp Fiction and Genre Writing
A recap for most of you, but on the topic of genre writing (horror, fantasy, science fiction, etc), I
want to be clear up front so there’s no confusion down the road. I won’t accept genre writing in
this class. In this course, we are interested in character-based fiction only. We will talk (ad nauseum
probably) about what this means, but in a nut-shell, it means that the fiction we're interested in
talking about and writing is rooted in the development of a character (or characters). The formula
is relatively simple: your character starts out at Point A, something happens, he/she moves to Point
B. There is change in your character wrought out of the situation he/she finds him/herself. This is
perhaps a little simplistic as an explanation, but note that change in the character is an important
part of this. Without getting drawn into an overly complicated defense of this policy, let me clarify
why I have this “rule.” This course is situated within an English department. The endeavor of this—
and every other—English department is to examine what literature and writing have to offer us in
terms of understanding the world and the human condition. The vast majority of genre fiction has
much less lofty aims—that is, to entertain. “Vast majority” is operative; of course there are plenty of
exceptions, but it is my experience that it doesn’t pay (us as a class) to sort the wheat from the chaff
in this case. Let me also say that to entertain is fine. It is not a lesser goal, but a different one. I
enjoy reading genre fiction myself. It’s just that this class isn’t the place for it. If this is a deal
breaker for you, then I suggest you reconsider your decision to take the course.
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Communication
It’s best to reach me by email at gdgabriel@smcm.edu. I generally check my email a few times a day.
I communicate with the class often by email and will expect you to check your email at least once
between each class.
Plagiarism
Each student in this course is expected to create the works they turn in themselves. Plagiarism is the
act of appropriating an d using the words, ideas, symbols, images, or other works of original
expression of others as one's own without giving credit to the person who created the work. For a
detailed account of what plagiarism is and how to avoid it, read the College’s description:
http://www.smcm.edu/academicservices/policies_misconduct_plagarism.html
If I catch you plagiarizing in this course, you will fail the course, end of story.
Course Assignments (see schedule for due dates)
1. Novella Draft 5%
2. Completed Novella 25%
3. Responses to Novella Drafts (due to me in final portfolio and to author on day of
workshop) 5%
4. Responses to Completed Novellas (due to me in final portfolio and to author on day of
workshop) 5%
5. Weekly Word Count (2500 words of your novella draft due on Sunday nights for the first
eight weeks of class; any week you miss the mark, you lose a letter grade for this category;
please both cut and paste the text into the body of the email AND attach it as a Word file)
15%
6. Participation (as part of your participation grade, you will be required to attend the two
VOICES fiction readings this term: Hannah Tinti and Peter Ho Davies; you need only sign
in with me at the reading) 10%
7. Team discussions leads (see Teams for explanation) 15%
8. Contextualizing Essay (due via email by the end of the final exam period) 20%
English 495: The Novella
Day by Day Schedule
1.18 Wednesday
Intro
Syllabus
1.20 Friday
Discuss
Pale Horse, Pale Rider
McClelland, Samuel Clark
Dellman, Lauren
1.23 Monday
Discuss
Essays TBA
Mayer, Melissa Wright
McDowell, Andrew M.
1.25 Wednesday
Due
Novella Proposal (at least 500 word sketch of your novella; please bring in a paper copy)
Discuss
Brokeback Mountain and “Sonny’s Blues”
Grein, Katherine Anne
Hausheer, Laura G.
1.27 Friday
Workshop proposals
1.30 Monday
Discuss
Heart of Darkness
Pasch, Christopher
Watson, Erica Alexis
2.1 Wednesday
TBA
2.3 Friday
Discuss
Florida
McClelland, Samuel Clark
Dellman, Lauren
Due
Fifteen page section of novella with synopsis
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English 495: The Novella
2.6 Monday
Discuss
The Art of Time in Fiction (pages 1-56)
2.8 Wednesday
Discuss
The Rider
Grein, Katherine Anne
Hausheer, Laura G.
2.10 Friday
Workshop
Young, Michael Erik
Sparacino, Mary Catherine
2.13 Monday
Workshop
Furgurson, Jesse Levi
Rockler, Samantha L.
2.15 Wednesday
Workshop
Grein, Katherine Anne
Hausheer, Laura G.
2.17 Friday
Discuss
Ship Fever
Mayer, Melissa Wright
McDowell, Andrew M.
2.20 Monday
Workshop
McClelland, Samuel Clark
Dellman, Lauren
2.22 Wednesday
No Class—St. Mary’s Day
2.24 Friday
Discuss
Wide Sargasso Sea
Furgurson, Jesse Levi
Rockler, Samantha L.
2.27 Monday
Workshop
Mayer, Melissa Wright
McDowell, Andrew M.
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English 495: The Novella
2.29 Wednesday
Workshop
Pasch, Christopher
Watson, Erica Alexis
3.2 Friday
Discuss
No One Writes to the Colonel
Young, Michael Erik
Sparacino, Mary Catherine
3.5 Monday
NO Class--Conferences
10:40 Sparacino, Mary Catherine
10:55 Watson, Erica Alexis
11:10 Dellman, Lauren
11:25 Young, Michael Erik
3.7 Wednesday
NO Class--Conferences
10:40 Pasch, Christopher
10:55 Furgurson, Jesse Levi
11:10 Grein, Katherine Anne
11:25 Hausheer, Laura G.
3.9 Friday
NO Class--Conferences
10:40 McClelland, Samuel Clark
10:55 McDowell, Andrew M.
11:10 Rockler, Samantha L.
11:25 Mayer, Melissa Wright
3.12 Monday
No Class-Spring Break
3. 14 Wednesday
No Class-Spring Break
3.16 Friday
No Class-Spring Break
3.19 Monday
No Class
3.21 Wednesday
Discuss
The Art of Time in Fiction (pages 57-112)
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English 495: The Novella
3.23 Friday
Discuss
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Furgurson, Jesse Levi
Rockler, Samantha L.
3.26 Monday
Movie Viewing
3.28 Wednesday
Movie Viewing
3.30 Friday
Movie Viewing
4.2 Monday
Discuss
“Miles City, Montana,” Alice Munro
Pasch, Christopher
Watson, Erica Alexis
Due
Novella (complete draft; turn in one copy of your double spaced novella; it is imperative that you
include page numbers)
4.4 Wednesday
Novella Workshop
Grein, Katherine Anne
4.5 Thursday
Peter Ho Davies reads at DPC at 8:15pm
4.6 Friday
Peter Ho Davies visits class
Discuss
“The Ugliest House in the World” and “The Silver Screen”
Young, Michael Erik
Sparacino, Mary Catherine
4.9 Monday
Novella Workshop
Dellman, Lauren
Young, Michael Erik (part one)
4.11 Wednesday
Novella Workshop
Young, Michael Erik (part two)
Watson, Erica Alexis
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English 495: The Novella
4.13 Friday
Novella Workshop
Sparacino, Mary Catherine
4.16 Monday
Novella Workshop
McDowell, Andrew M.
Rockler, Samantha L. (part one)
4.17 Thursday
Hannah Tinti reads at DPC at 8:15pm
4.18 Wednesday
Novella Workshop
Rockler, Samantha L. (part two)
Pasch, Christopher
4.20 Friday
Novella Workshop
McClelland, Samuel Clark
4.23 Monday
Novella Workshop
Hausheer, Laura G.
Mayer, Melissa Wright (part one)
4.25 Wednesday
No Class
4.27 Friday
Novella Workshop
Mayer, Melissa Wright (part two)
Furgurson, Jesse Levi
Contextualizing Essay Due via email by the end of the Exam Period
Saturday, May 5 at 4pm
Roster
Pasch, Christopher
Furgurson, Jesse Levi
Grein, Katherine Anne
Hausheer, Laura G.
Mayer, Melissa Wright
McClelland, Samuel Clark
McDowell, Andrew M.
Rockler, Samantha L.
Sparacino, Mary Catherine
Watson, Erica Alexis
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English 495: The Novella
Dellman, Lauren
Young, Michael Erik
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