Anoka Ramsey Community College

English 2204: Short Stories

Course Description:

Students will read selected short stories to explore the scope and variety of this form of literature. Point of view, characterization, language, and other elements will be emphasized; students will analyze, interpret, and evaluate the stories. The course will also deal with issues of diversity and may be organized around a particular topic.

Other Information:

This course satisfies goal areas 6A and 7 in the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum.

This course is 3 credits.

Successful completion of ENGL 1121 is recommended.

Learner Outcomes:

At the conclusion of this course, students should be able to:

  1. Read, discuss, analyze, interpret, and evaluate short stories which will be selected from diverse cultures and may be organized around a specific topic (e.g., women in literature, American writers, etc.).

  2. Expand their literary repertoires by reading and responding (in class discussions and written assignments) to selected short stories.

  3. Use various writing techniques to analyze literature.

  4. Use literary terminology such as character, plot, setting, theme, style, point of view, symbol, and metaphor to describe technical elements of short stories.

  5. Select and apply a critical approach (such as biographical criticism, reader-response criticism, feminist criticism, historical criticism, psychoanalytic criticism, etc.) to analyze, interpret, and evaluate selected short stories.

  6. Present -- through activities such as group discussions, reading logs or journals, response papers, critical essays, reviews, and examinations -- their personal interpretation and evaluation of selected stories.

  7. Understand how these selected short stories reflect the characteristics and values of the people and times in which they were written.

  8. Recognize how race, ethnic group, gender, class, and sexuality differences (especially as seen in United States society) both inform and are illustrated by literature, and how literature can be used to discuss, understand, and appreciate these differences.

  9. Recognize how writers who have been considered “minority” or “diverse” contribute to the literary canon and how these writers are similar to and different from other writers.

  10. Appreciate the ways in which literature helps us better understand ourselves, other people, and the world around us.