Appalachian State University
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
SHN 5003
Hispanic Short Fiction
Dr. Patricia Napiorski - napiorskimp@appstate.edu
Summer 2011
Foreign Languages and Literatures
This course is the study of the short story in Hispanic
Literature, which will examine the genre form a cultural
and literary perspective. Readings of commentary of
selected short stories, including women writers and ethnic
authors, will trace the history of the genre and explore
its main themes. Primary sources will be complemented by
literary and historical readings.
The goal is to build the course on the students’ existing
analytical and language skills. The course bridge the
literature of the Hispanic world and its culture and other
disciplines namely art, anthropology, history, and Latin
American studies. This course has pedagogical applications
because the student will learn to select appropriate
readings for different levels of instruction, he or she
will be able to adapt short stories to classroom use by
editing and re-writing, and will be able to evaluate their
analytical work in order to improve their skills and
knowledge.
Types of activities and Grading Criteria
Abstracts (total of 3)
Final Essay
Presentation
30% (10% each one)
40%
30%
Topics: (All texts are available on library reserve on-line and at the professor’s
webpage)
Primera Semana: España.
Introducción: El cuento como género literario y los elementos del cuento (teoría
crítica de Gabriela Mora y “En torno al cuento” . MLA Style.
Origen del cuento español.
Readings:
-Juan Manuel Cuento XVII (Biblioteca Digital):
Realismo y Naturalismo (Siglo XIX):
Benito Pérez Galdós: “El Don Juan” (Biblioteca Digital)
Emilia Pardo Bazán: Cuentos de la tierra: “Las medias rojas”. (Biblioteca Digital)
(La Generación del 98):
-Miguel de Unamuno: “La venda” (Biblioteca Digital)
-Ramón de Valle Inclán: “El miedo” (Biblioteca Digital)
La narrativa en España desde 1940:
El realismo social y el tremendismo:
-Ana María Matute y la renovación narrativa en España (Biblioteca Digital)
-Miguel Delibes: Selección “El amor propio de Juanito Osuna” (Biblioteca Digital)
(Literatura pos Franco): Posmodernismo:
-Manuel Rivas: “La lengua de las mariposas” (My Webpage, click on Enlaces, right side
column, bottom of the page)
-Carmen Riera: “Te dejo en prueba amor el mar” y “Elegía por una dama”. (On line
library reserve)
-Ana María Moix: “Las virtudes peligrosas”. (On line library reserve)
-Adelaida García Morales: “El sur”. (On line library reserve)
Segunda semana: Latin American Short Story
Marco Histórico. Teoría crítica latinoamericana y latinoamericanista.
Transculturación narrativa en América Latina.
-Horacio Quiroga: el existencialismo y el naturalismo en la narrativa cuentística de
Quiroga: “El desierto”/ “El hombre muerto”/ “El hijo” “La gallina degollada” (Biblioteca
Digital)
-El Boom latinoamericano: El surrealismo europeo y el nativismo en la narrativa de
Gabriel García Márquez: “La luz es como el agua” ; “El drama del desencantado”/ “Solo
vine a hablar por teléfono” (Biblioteca Digital)
-Julio Cortázar: “Carta a una señorita en Paris”/ “La casa tomada” (Biblioteca Digital)
“Historias de Cronopios y Famas” (On my webpage click on Enlaces, left side column).
Rosario Ferré: Del libro Cuando las mujeres quieren a los hombres “La muñeca menor”
(On line Library reserve)
El posboom:
-Julio Ortega sobre el nuevo cuento hispanoamericano:
-Luisa Valenzuela: “La pantera ocular” (On line library reserve)
-Delmila Eltit: “Diez noches de Francisca Lombardo” (On line library reserve)
-Cristina Perri Rossi: “Atlas” (On line library reserve)
-Elena Garro: “La culpa es de los tlaxcaltecas”(On line library reserve)
-María Luisa Puga: “La naturalidad”(On line library reserve)
Tercera semana: U.S Hispanic Authors.
-Border Crossing Literature:
-Dolores Prida: “Coser y Cantar” (On line library reserve)
-Angela McEwan-Alvarado: “Naranjas” (On line library reserve)
-Rosaura Sánchez: “Entró y se sentó” (On line library reserve)
-Juan Armando Epple: “Garage Sale”(On line library reserve)
-Tomás Rivera: “Las salamandras” (On line library reserve)
-Mario Bellatín: “Salón de Belleza” (pending)
Explanation of Course Work:
Abstracts: 300 word abstract (or a compressed summary) of critical articles researched
about one autor and his/her work studied in class. Students should research, read, and
dissect three articles from literary or cultural studies journals, and write their
corresponding abstract (three in total, one abstract for each article). These abstracts must
be turned in with the final essay.
Final Essay: A critical essay (10-12 pages) in which the student will present a critical
analysis of one of the authors and his/her work. This final paper should reflect a dialogue
between primary and secondary sources, but also, an incorporation of students’ ideas and
their understanding of class discussions and the profesor Napiorski’s lectures. The three
articles must be used as secondary sources. These paper will help you learn to write using
an academic language, and also to articulate ideas from different perspectives: you will
have to deal with your ideas, mine, your author’s, PLUS your secondary sources).
Presentations: Each Friday students will present to the class an author and his/her short
story. Presentation can be literary (a brief biographic information of the author, a
summary of the short story, and analysis of the literary elements of the short story). Or, if
a student chooses, they can do a lesson plan using the short story. That is, how would
you teach that short story to your class?