English 7420x: The Short Story Prof. Fairey
This course focuses on the genre of the short story in comparative literature of the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries. Stories are drawn from English, North and South American, Anglophone, European, and Asian traditions. Stories range from very short to long ones, stories that stand alone to ones that are linked in collections, and classics to contemporary pieces Since the short story is a form essentially without rules, attention will be paid to the ways that a great variety of stories take shape and help to define the genre. Typically each week’s reading assignment will be four to six stories. All readings are accessible on the course Website: https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/shortstory
Course Requirements:
Regular attendance and participation
Completion of weekly reading assignment
Weekly response (critical or creative) to some selection or aspect of the readings (1-3 pages)
One class presentation
Term Paper (6-8 pages)
Contact Information:
Professor Wendy Fairey
Email: wfairey@brooklyn.cuny.edu; wfairey@gmail.com
Cell phone: 516-380-5266
Office hours: M 3:30-4:30
Week 1—August 30
Introduction and discussion of short shorts
George Saunders, “Sticks”
Week 2—September 13
Margaret Atwood, “Happy Endings”
Grace Paley, “A Conversation with My Father”
Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour”
Anthony Doerr, “The Deep”
Helen Phillips, “The Knowers”
Week 3—September 20
Leo Tolstoy, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”
Tatiana Tolstoya, “Aspic”
Lydia Davis, “Pouchet’s Wife”
“Letter to a Funeral Parlor”
Rebecca White, “Letter to a Funeral Parlor Client”
Donald Barthelme, “The School”
Week 4—September 27
Tim O’Brien, “The Things They Carried”
Louise Erdrich, “The Red Convertible”
Said Sayrafiezadeh, “A Brief Encounter with the Enemy”
Hassan Blasin, “The Green Zone Rabbit”
Lucia Berlin, “My Jockey”
Week 5—October 4
Ernest Hemingway, “Hills Like White Elephants”
David Foster Wallace, “Everything is Green”
Russell Banks, “Black Man and White Woman in a Dark Green Rowboat”
Nathan Englander, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Ann Frank”
Raymond Carver, "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love"
Luisa Valenzuela, “Vision Out of the Corner of One Eye”
Week 6—October 18
Franz Kafka, “The Metamorphosis”
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “ A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”
Clarice Lispector, “The Smallest Woman in the World”
Ray Bradbury, “August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains”
Octavia Butler, “Speech Sounds”
Samanta Schweblin, “Birds in the Mouth”
Week 7—October 25
D.H. Lawrence, “The Rocking Horse Winner”
John Cheever, “The Swimmer”
Miranda July, “The Swim Team”
Raymond Carver, “Cathedral”
Flannery O’Connor, “Everything That Rises Must Converge”
Week 8—November 1
George Saunders:
From Tenth of Decemberi
“Victory Lap,”
“Puppy,”
“Escape from Spiderhead,”
“Tenth of December”
Week 9—November 8
James Joyce:
“Araby,”
“A Painful Case”
“The Dead”
Alice Munro, “Passion”
Joyce Carol Oates, “Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?”
Week 10—November 15
Anton Chekov, “The Darling”
Kate Chopin, “Desiree’s Baby”
Sandra Cisneros, “Barbie-Q”
Jamaica Kincaid, “Girl”
Bobbie Ann Mason, “Shiloh”
Deb Olin Unferth, “Likeable”
Amelia Gay, “The Swan as a Metaphor for Love”
Week 11—November 22
James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues”
Zora Neale Hurston, “Sweat”
Alice Walker, “Everyday Use”
ZZ Packer, “Brownies”
Zadie Smith, “Crazy, They Call Me”
Week 12—November 29
Art Spiegelman, “Prisoner on the Hell Planet: A Case History”
Marjane Satrapi, From Persepolis: “The Veil”
Franz Kafka, “A Hunger Artist”
R. Crumb and David Zane Mairowitz, “A Hunger Artist”
Alison Bechdel, “The Fellowship”
Lynda Barry, “Two Questions”
Week 13—December 6
Junot Diaz
From This is How You Lose Her
“The Sun, The Moon, The Stars”
“Alma”
“Miss Lora”
“The Cheater’s Guide to Love”
Sherwood Anderson, “Hands”
Week 14--December 13
Jhumpa Lahiri
From Unaccustomed Earth”
“Unaccustomed Earth”
“Hell-Heaven”
“Once in a Lifetime”
“Year’s End”
“Going Ashore”
Week 15--December 20
Final Class exercise
Term Paper Due
