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CREW 204: Short Fiction

Course Aims and Objectives:
This module will explore the writing of short stories in a workshop environment through the development of the student’s own work, combined with the directed reading of selected texts. Over the course of ten weeks, you are expected to read and discuss each key text and submit your own work for critiquing on a regular basis. Students are also expected to explore some of the books and essays listed as ‘supplementary’ reading: the books are selected to offer perspectives on key creative and critical issues. The course should be considered as having a cumulative effect, in that texts and themes discussed early on will be drawn upon in later weeks to illustrate different aspects of writing. During the course, you are also expected to keep a Writing Journal, in which you reflect upon your writing and reading. The journal will form the basis of the reflective element of your final portfolio.

Assessment:
At the end of the Lent term, you are expected to submit a short piece of reflective writing based on your journal, in which you consider your progress throughout the course and detail plans for your final portfolio submission. This will be discussed in an end-of-term personal tutorial with your tutor.

1 x portfolio comprising up to 3 short stories, totaling no more than 4,000 words (if you wish to deviate from this, please consult your tutor) and one reflective essay based upon your Writing Journal (1,000 words).

Submission deadline:
Portfolio = by 12 noon, Friday Week 2/Term 3.

Contact:
1 x 90 minute workshop per week.

Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this course you should have developed:

• a working knowledge of the different forms that short stories can take (and have practiced some of these forms)
• a knowledge of the narrative strategies adopted by individual writers in their short stories
• a practice-based awareness of the process of drafting and revising your own short stories
• a reflexive journal of that personal writing process
• an awareness of what constitutes a ‘writerly reading’ of texts
• an awareness of contemporary writing from a variety of cultures
• a well-developed technique for providing critique of peer work and a knowledge of the critical criteria which underlie successful evaluations
• an increased awareness of the role of the reader in realizing the author’s text
• a critical awareness of your own strengths and weaknesses as a writer
• enhanced skills in written and oral communication
• an awareness of the importance of all of the above in your development as a writer

Set Texts:
 (all available on Moodle)

Extraordinary Little Cough, Dylan Thomas, Miscellany Two, Aldine
The Half-Skinned Steer, E. Annie Proulx, Close Range, Fourth Estate
Clown Pants Molina, Stephen D. Guttierez, Sudden Fiction Latino, Norton
The Hotel of the Idle Moon, William Trevor, The Collected Stories, Penguin
Cathedral, Raymond Carver, Where I’m Calling From, Harper Collins
Miracle, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Guardian Review Book of Short Stories
Light is like Water, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Sudden Fiction Latino, Norton

Supplementary Reading
The following books contain useful information about the art of writing in general short fiction in particular and also theories of reception.
Short Circuit, ed. Vanessa Gebbie, Salt Publishing
The Creative Writing Coursebook, ed. Julia Bell & Paul Magrs, Macmillan
Creative Writing, a workbook with readings, ed. Linda Anderson, Routledge
Creative Writing Guidebook, ed. Graeme Harper, Continuum
Modern Criticism and Theory, a reader, ed. David Lodge, Longman
How Fiction Works, James Wood, Vintage
Writing Short Stories, Ailsa Cox, Routledge

Contemporary Writers on Writing:
http://www.transculturalwriting.com/radiophonics/contents/writersonwriting/index.html
Short Story Website:
http://www.theshortstory.org.uk/

The list above is designed to introduce students to a wide spectrum of short stories, practice-based theory and critical reading. Students should read as widely as possible in the short story form – there are anthologies in the library. The short story is a universal literary form and it’s good to come into contact with as many different viewpoints, cultural settings and styles as possible.

Term 2

* These indicative discussion topics overlap in relation to each story, so they will not be approached sequentially but holistically, with a particular emphasis relating to each story.

Back to: CREW 203

Forward to: CREW 205

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