Department of English

A selective survey of modern and contemporary British short fiction. We'll start with turn-of-the-century writers like Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy and Joseph Conrad and continue through D.H. Lawrence and Graham Greene to contemporary writers like Allen Sillitoe, Angela Carter, and Ian McEwan. We'll also look at Irish writers like James Joyce, as well as Asian and African writers who set their fiction in Great Britain. We'll consider the structure as well as the appeal of short fiction and the various subjects it treats: loss of innocence, rite of passage, adventure, crime, social justice, religious belief, class, sexuality, racial difference, satire, or fantasy. We'll make use of our London location whenever possible.

Coursework will include short writing assignments and a final essay.