L204 INTRODUCTION TO FICTION
Gareth Evans

16488 - 9:30a-10:45a TR (25 students) 3 cr. A&H, IW.

This course is a writing intensive, multi-period introduction to the short story, novella, and novel. The fiction we will read spans the period between the 1790s and the 1990s. We will combine our focus on fiction with examination of a number of brief critical commentaries. Our discussion will often be guided by the social, moral, ethical, and political questions raised by the fiction we read. The goal of the course is to make you a more attentive reader, a more fluent writer, and a more analytical and critical thinker.

Reading: Pat Barker, Regeneration; Hannah Webster Foster, The Coquette; David Madden. Ed. A Pocketful of Prose. Vintage Short Fiction. Volume 2; Kurt Vonngeut, Slaughterhouse Five.

Requirements: Three essays, a revised essay, five brief, un-graded formal responses, a graded exercise focused on the use of online library resources, class participation. The essays are worth 80% of your final grade. You must fulfill all of the writing requirements to receive a passing grade in the class. The penalty for more than three absences is one full letter grade deducted from your final class grade for each class you miss after your third absence. Late essays are penalized 1/3 of a grade for every day they are late.