ENG 255 American Short Story Course outline - Fall 2009

_ ENG 255 Index | Course Schedule | Assignments | Glossary | Chronology | Story Themes | What Makes a Good Story?_

Lesson assignments are due at or before 11:59 pm on the date listed. You have until the next night (24 hours) to respond to another student's post. So each lesson must be completed by 11:59 pm on the night following the date listed. Essays are due on the dates listed.

1. Course requirements and first assignments - Sept. 14
Access online classroom for email, story interpretation selection, and discussion requirements for this lesson

2. What makes a good short story? - Sept. 16
Susan GlaspellA Jury of Her Peers (This story is not in the text; read online or print the document to read.)
Post your commentary by 11:59 pm and read other student posts and respond to one.

3. Nathaniel Hawthorne / Mary E. Wilkins Freeman - Sept 22
Hawthorne, The Birth-mark

Freeman, The Revolt of "Mother"

4. Ambrose Bierce / Charles Chesnutt - Sept 29
Bierce, The Coup de Grâce
Bierce, Parker Adderson, Philosopher (optional; access this story from the web; it is not in the text)
Chestnutt, The Passing of Grandison

5. Charlotte Perkins Gilman / Kate Chopin - Oct 6
Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper
Chopin, Désirée's Baby - print from web, not in text

6.  *Explication essay due Oct 13

7. F. Scott Fitzgerald - Oct 20
Fitzgerald, Babylon Revisited
Bernice Bobs Her Hair

8.  Katherine Anne Porter- Oct 27
The Grave
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall

9. William Faulkner / Richard Wright - Nov 3
Faulkner, Barn Burning
Wright, Big Boy Leaves Home

10. Flannery O'Connor / Alice Walker - Nov 12
O'Connor, Revelation
Walker, Nineteen Fifty-five

11.  *Critical essay - topic due Nov 18; final draft due: Dec 1

12. Jhumpa Lahiri, This Blessed House - Dec 6

13. Final evaluation 
Submit no later than 9:00 am on Dec 15

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