“Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.”

--Jessamyn West

This is a course on the methods of critically reading and interpreting serious fiction. In 4.5 weeks, students will be introduced to and practice various critical and theoretical approaches to interpreting fictional narratives--most in print, but some electronic. Students will use those approaches when reading and interpreting shorter and longer narrative fictions. We will review some online novels, and given adequate time in such a condensed quarter, I may add a short print novel for us to read and analyze toward the end of the quarter.

Requirements include: willingness to perceive connections and differences between fact and fiction; practice in various methods of reading fiction so as to identify writers’ imaginative crafts; demonstrated ability to read, discuss, and critically write about a variety of fictions. Essential to course success is weekly course attendance and engaged participation, as this course meets weekdays for 2+ hours for almost 5 weeks.

Other course requirements include written and oral weekly quizzes and conferences, a midterm, as well as a final exam, all of which include objective definitions of fictional terminology as well as essay analyses.

The course syllabus will be distributed and discussed on the first day of the quarter, and all details of the course as well as questions about it will be discussed with enrolled students that day.

Charters, The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction, Compact 7th edition
Hacker, A Pocket Style Manual, 4th edition