Brandeis University

    ENG 180A: Modern American Short Story

    Instructor: William Flesch
    Prerequisites: None
    Course Description: <b>This course will be a Zoom-based "Remote Learning" course for Summer 2022</b><br> Great short stories are powerful because they engage the reader immediately: their efficiency is part of their power and to be efficient they have to enlist the reader's creative contribution almost from the first word. The greatest short stories are, page for page, probably the most powerful fiction it's possible to read, and most of the greatest short stories in English are American. In this course we read and discuss four or five short stories a week, by writers such as Kate Chopin, Flannery O'Connor, Ralph Ellison, Dashiell Hammett, James Baldwin, Ernest Hemingway, Nathanael West, and others. Generally we come up with a syllabus together on the first day of class, reading stories that students really want to read, in all sorts of different genres, from psychological dramas to science fiction to mystery stories, to horror (think Poe) to adventure stories. They all have something in common: the readers participation in orienting themselves in a world that we are therefore asked to help create, to collaborate in understanding and in caring about.
    Session: Session II
    Day: T, W, Th
    Time: 11:10am - 1:40pm
    Credit Hours: 4 Credits
    Course Format: "Remote Learning" Course for Summer 2022
    Brandeis Graduation Requirement Fulfilled: HUM
    Enrollment Limit: 20 students
    Course Classification: Undergraduate Level Course
    Course Tuition: $3,290
    Course Fees: None
    Open to High School Students: Yes