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Lecturer(s)
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Course content
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Course content: Defining the genre (E.A. Poe, Charles E. May, E. Hemingway). Critical Realism and the Short Story; coherence, characterization, conflict. Text: J. Galsworthy. Naturalism and the Short Story; plot, story, prolepsis, analepsis. Text: G. Gissing. Exotic and Colonial Story - R.L. Stevenson, R. Kipling; setting, irony, third person narrator. Text: J. Conrad. Detective, Horror and Mystery Story - J.S. Le Fanu, etc.; suspense, foreshadowing. Texts: H.G. Wells, W. De La Mare. Early 20th century Short Story Experiments; symbol, epiphany, point of view. Text: J. Joyce. D.H. Lawrence: themes, narrative technique, Freudianism. Text: D.H. Lawrence. The 'Greeneland' of Graham Greene. Narrative technique, themes. Text: Graham Greene. Postmodern Short Story; features and innovations, meta-fiction, intertextuality. Text: D. Lodge. Postcolonial Short Story; issues, identity, assimilation, diaspora, otherness. Texts: R. Gunesekera, R. Tromans, A. Ladha. Women Story-tellers and the Feminist Short Story; issues, styles, gender. Texts: F. Weldon, R. Tremain. Short Story and Magic Realism; return to the origins of short story genre. Text: A. Carter.
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Learning activities and teaching methods
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Dialogic (discussion, interview, brainstorming)
- Participation in classes
- 26 hours per semester
- Preparation of a presentation (report) in a foreign language
- 8 hours per semester
- Preparation for a credit (assessment)
- 20 hours per semester
- Home preparation for classes
- 30 hours per semester
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Learning outcomes
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The course aims to provide an overview of the changes and generic specificity of the short story in Britain since its appearance until the end of the 20th century. Using sample representative texts by British writers since the Victorian beginnings until the present day, seminar discussions and critical reading of the texts will yield students' awareness of this genre's formal and stylistic but also thematic specificity; all on the backcloth of social and historical contexts. The seminars will also introduce key concepts from narratology in order to enhance the discussions of the texts. Because of its specificity, the course is recommended for students after completing their BBRL2/BRLI2 course.
Students will acquire textual and analytical literary competence in a specific literary genre. Students will acquire insight into specific structural aspects of the genre: the seminars will employ close reading and aspects of narratology. The overall output is the cultivation of students' critical thought and their appreciation of literary work.
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Prerequisites
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unspecified
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Assessment methods and criteria
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Oral examination, Student performance assessment, Discussion, Presentation
- Attendance (maximum of 3 missed classes) - Active participation and preparation of assigned texts before the seminars - Presentation of an assigned project - Oral interview
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Recommended literature
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BRADBURY, M. The Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories. London: Penguin Books Ltd, 1998. ISBN 0140063064.
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FLORA, J.M. The English Short Story 1880-1945: A Critical History. Boston, Mass.: Twayne, 1985.
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HUNTER, Adrian. The Cambridge Introduction to Short Story in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
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MAY, C. E. The Short Story: The Reality of Artifice. London: Routledge, 2002.
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MAY, Charles. New Short Story Theories. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1994.
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OREL, H. The Victorian Short Story: Development and Triumph of a Literary Genre. Cambridge: CUP, 1986.
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VANNATTA, D. The English Short Story, 1945-1980: A Critical History. Boston, Mass.: Twayne, 1985.
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