The Art of Short Fiction

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

The brevity of short fiction has often had the effect of sidelining its significance in literary history and its particular power in the modern world. But sometimes less is more. Taking a transhistorical approach, this course investigates the aesthetic affordances of short fiction as it has developed in Britain and Ireland across time. Our scope will range from premodern story collections such as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the Lais of Marie de France, the Welsh Mabinogian and the Irish Ulster Cycle to modern and contemporary work by writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Frank O’Connor, Salman Rushdie and Zadie Smith. We will also consider genres that test the limits of the form, including the novella and flash fiction. Throughout, we will seek to develop the theoretical acumen and practical critical tools that will enable us to read any short fiction with greater skill and pleasure.