This class will emphasize the development of critical reading skills through its focus on the short story, a particularly crucial genre in the nineteenth century. We will examine the humorous, grotesque, political, and realistic strains of short fiction in America across the century, and consider the function of the story as both an artistic practice of economy and as a presence in periodical publishing-where it functions both to entertain and to editorialize. Readings include a range of authors, such as Hawthorne, Poe, Edward Everett Hale, Rebecca Harding Davis, Bret Harte, Sarah Orne Jewett, Charles Chestnutt, and Henry James. Format: discussion/seminar. Requirements: class participation and 20 pages of writing in the form of frequent short papers. No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 19 per section (expected: 19 per section). Preference to first-year students. Two sections. This course is writing intensive.

Hour: DAVIS