TOPIC: THE LURE OF STORIES
							

Lecture Section: 
 	
2025   11:15a-12:05p  MW   

Discussions:

2026   08:00a-08:50a  WF   

2027   09:05a-09:55a WF   

2028   10:10a-11:00a   WF 

2029   12:20p-01:10p WF   

2030   01:25p-02:15p   WF 

2031    02:30p-03:20p WF 

2032   03:35p-04:25p   WF  

									
This course will focus on stories: Why do all cultures tell stories?
Why are they fascinating? What role do they play in the creation of
individual and cultural meaning? How are stories put together to make
them interesting and meaningful? And what skills do we need to
understand them and to enjoy them as fully as possible? This course
will address these issues by considering a wide range of stories:
fairy tales, urban legends, films, fictions, autobiography. The
premise of the course is that all of us, by virtue of being born into
a culture steeped in stories, already see our lives as "stories";
"story" is the dominant metaphor by which we express our basic wishes
and fears and our desire for a life that goes somewhere. So by
becoming more aware of how we might understand stories, we will be
developing skills that will not only help us understand the texts we
read, the stories we hear, and the films we go to, but also will help
us understand the ways by which we make sense–create sense, revise
sense–of our lives.

	
The course will consist of lecture two days a week and smaller
discussion sections two days a week. Students will write four short
(about four-page) papers, in-class assignments, a midterm exam and a
final exam. 


The following reading list is tentative and partial; we will be
reading new material each week. Email hedin@indiana.edu at the end of
April for a complete list.


	Selected fairy tales 

	Selected urban legends 

	Raymond Carver, Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?

	Lorrie Moore, Birds of America 

	Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried 

	Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mister Ripley

	Steven Millhauser,The Knife Thrower


	three or four films (tentative selection):

	Thelma and Louise 

	Pretty Woman 

	The Godfather (I)