English 261 LEC 011: Introduction to Short Stories
Instructor: Associate Professor William V. Van Pelt
MTWR 1:00 pm - 3:35 pm, Room: AUP 189
Summer Session, 2004 (6/1-6/24); Class number: 807879
Summer 2004
Office Hours: Curtin 505 - Thursday 3:35 - 4:35 or by appointment
Email address: vanpelt@uwm.edu; course email reflector: 261s@uwm.edu
Homepage: http://www.uwm.edu/~vanpelt/
In this course, students will read a wide variety of American short stories from the nineteenth and twentieth
century. We will study these stories as literary experiences, as historical markers of our evolving American
ethos, and as cultural signifiers of what we are and who we might become. We shall also pay close attention
to the rhetorical aspects of the short story, including the social contexts of author and the author's audience,
the language and persuasive authority of the text, and impact the story has on our view of literature, history
culture, and life. The course requires substantial reading, regular in-class quizzes, group work, and exams.
Required Book: Major American Short Stories, edited by A. Walton Litz Third Edition, Oxford University
Press, 1994. Available in the UWM Bookstore.
In addition to regular participation during in-class discussions, course work will include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Regular quizzes: approximately one each day on the required reading for the day.
Group work with occasional in-class writing: short answer questions for discussion or group work.
A mid-term, exam: short answers, written, take-home, typed, double-spaced, with 1" margins.
Take home final exam: short answers, written, with one or two longer essay questions, handed in by
last day of the summer session, Saturday, June 26; exam should be typed, double-spaced, with 1"
margins, with page numbers and your name on every page.
Text: Major American Short Stories, ed. A. Walton Litz, Third Edition (Oxford Univ Press).
Schedule:
June
1
2
3
June
Introduction
Irving: "Rip Van Winkle,"; Hawthorne: "Wakefield," "Young Goodman Brown";
Litz: 3-14 (Quiz on all readings for this day and every day of the term except when there is a
Midterm or Final Exam).
Hawthorne: "Rappaccini's Daughter"; Poe: "The Fall of the House of Usher,"
7 Poe: "Ligeia," "The Purloined Letter"
8 Melville: "Bartleby the Scrivener," Litz: 14-21, James: "The Real Thing,"
9 James: "The Jolly Corner"; Twain: "How To Tell a Story," "The Celebrated Jumping Frog,"
Litz: 221-231 ; Mid-term take-home Exam handed out.
10 Harte: "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," Howells: "Editha"; MID-TERM EXAM due (no quiz)
June 14
15
16
17
Chopin: "Désirée's Baby"; Gilman: "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Crane: "The Open Boat," "Stephen Crane's Own Story"; Litz: 329-47
Wharton: "Roman Fever"; Fitzgerald: "Babylon Revisited"
Hurston: "The Gilded Six-Bits"; Hemingway: "Big Two-Hearted River"
English 350-261-LEC-011
June 21
22
23
24
Van Pelt-Syllabus p. 2
Welty: "Petrified Man"; Porter: "Flowering Judas"
Wright: "The Man Who Was Almost A Man"; O'Connor: "A Good Man Is Hard To Find"
Malamud: "The Magic Barrel"; Baldwin: "Sonny Blues"
Updike: "The Doctor's Wife"; Carver: "Errand"; FINAL TAKE-HOME EXAM handed out. (no
Quiz because of work on Take Home Final Exam).
June 24-26 FINAL TAKE-HOME WRITTEN EXAM due. Exam is open book. No class on Friday,
June 24, but exam may be turned into Professor Van Pelt's English Department Curtin Hall
mailbox or emailed to vanpelt@uwm.edu by the end of the day, 11:59 pm, Saturday, June 26.
Grading: Quizzes = 35%; Mid-term Exam = 20%; Participation = 20%; Final Exam = 25%
Notes on grading: Your lowest quiz score will be dropped and the other quiz scores will be averaged.
Participation will include regular attendance, contributing questions and ideas during class discussion of
the readings, participating in occasional small group activities, and as time and Internet access permit,
there may be occasional on-line discussion or activities. More than one unexcused absence will lower your
grade in the course. Partial “makeup” work for excused and unexcused absences includes completion of
the daily quiz, and the following written work for each story covered on the day of absence: a brief plot
summary; a description of the most important critical point, symbol, or event in the story; and one critical
question about each story. Make up work must be typed, double-spaced, and turned within two days of
absence.
English Department policies on Academic Dishonesty and Grievances: policies are posted on a bulletin
board in the west hall of CRT 439 and on the English Department homepage
(http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/English/).
------- ------English Education Post-BA or Certificate Students only:
With the approval of Professor Donna Pasternak in the School of Education, you may complete additional
work in English 261 to satisfy an English 300-level survey course substitution requirement. This additional
course requirement applies only to Education students who have approval from Professor Donna Pasternak
to substitute English 261 for an English 300-level survey course by doing extra course work. The
substitution will not count toward English BA requirements, but will count for English education
certificate requirements or other requirements approved by Professor Pasternak.
This requirement includes completing a 12 to 15 page critical annotated bibliography on selected works of
at least two authors (related in time period, thematic concerns, or style) from the course readings. The
annotated bibliography must include a short review essay, critical annotations of works by the authors (one
taken from the course reading), critical annotations of related scholarly works on the authors, including
biographical, interpretive, and critical readings of the author's life or works. Students completing this
requirement will also participate in an online discussion group and a presentation of their findings to the
class as a whole. A memorandum proposal identifying the authors, one of their works, and other
information is due Monday June 10; the final paper is due on the last day of class June 24.