THE WORLD IN A GRAIN OF SAND: THE ART OF THE SHORT STORY
“If you concentrate your attention on some apparently insignificant portion of the world,” observes the short story writer Steven Millhauser, “you will find, deep within it, nothing less than the world itself. In that single grain of sand lies the beach that contains the grain of sand. In that single grain of sand lies the ocean that dashes against the beach, the ship that sails the ocean, the sun that shines down on the ship, the interstellar winds, a teaspoon in Kansas, the structure of the universe. And there you have the ambition of the short story, the terrible ambition that lies behind its fraudulent modesty: to body forth the whole world.”
We will examine this holograph-like quality of the short story as we make our way, via close reading, through classics of the genre (Gogol, Maupassant, Babel, Chekhov, Kafka, Joyce, James, Porter, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, O’Connor, Mishima, Salinger, Cheever) as well as contemporary and experimental work (Carver, Lahiri, Barthelme, Saunders) and others. Students will maintain a writer’s notebook, respond to readings in the form of critical and creative writing, and move on to create their own narratives, including flash fiction and short-shorts, resulting in a portfolio of 30+ pages of revised and presumably publishable fiction. Students will be required to submit at least one story to a print or online literary journal or competition. Open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors; recommended for, but not limited to, students who have taken English 100A. |
