Course Description:

In the first half of the semester, we’ll briefly introduce the historical background of the rise of the novel (as a genre) and situate modern fiction in the context in which it emerged as what came after and broke away from the realist tradition. The first part of the course will be focused mainly on short stories, which presumably are easier for undergraduates (in terms of length, at least), before we deal with novels later in the semester. Our approaches will be primarily based on our close readings of the texts themselves (as opposed to, for instance, the biographical information or the historical contexts), although different frameworks of interpretation are welcome after we gain familiarity with the texts. To cover as many novels as possible, the teacher will ask students to choose one novel from a short list and do an oral presentation on the chosen novel with his/her group members in the last one-third of the semester.

Readings: The texts below include both those that are to be taught by the teacher, and those from which students choose the works they present on.

Short Stories: (Most of them will be taught, or at least introduced, by the teacher.)
Edgar Allen Poe: “A Tell-Tale Heart”
William Faulkner: “A Rose for Emily” (collected in The Norton Anthology of American Literature)
James Joyce: “Araby,” “A Little Cloud,” and “The Dead” (all taken from the collection Dubliners)
Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness (not quite a short story, but less than one-third the length of a typical novel)

Novels: (Only The Scarlet Letter and The Sound and the Fury are to be taught by the teacher himself; the others constitute the list from which you choose your target text for the oral report.)
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway
James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
Richard Wright, Native Son
John Fowles, The Collector
Toni Morrison, Beloved
Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of Suburbia

Tentative Schedule
Week1 Introduction; Edgar Allen Poe: “A Tell-Tale Heart” (handout provided)
Week2 “A Tell-Tale Heart”; William Faulkner: “A Rose for Emily”
Week3 William Faulkner: “A Rose for Emily”; James Joyce: “Araby”
Week4 James Joyce: “Araby”; “A Little Cloud”
Week5 Joyce: "A Little Cloud”& “The Dead”
Week6 Joyce: “The Dead”
Week7 Joyce: “The Dead”& Introduction to the modernist novel
Week8 Group presentations on selected short stories
Week9 Midterm
Week10 Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
Week11 The Scarlet Letter
Week12 The Scarlet Letter
Week13 The Scarlet Letter & Introduction to William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
Week14 William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury
Week15 The Sound and the Fury
Week16 The Sound and the Fury & Group presentations on selected novels from the list
Week17 Group presentations on selected novels from the list
Week18 Group presentations on selected novels from the list / Due: term paper