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:
