EH 210-A: Introduction to Fiction
Everyone’s a Storyteller
Archer, MW 9:30-10:50
Storytelling was crucial to the development of human beings as a species. Early human beings
used storytelling to pass on their culture, spread the news, and gather in groups for entertainment.
Storytelling plays an important role in our own prehistory as individuals. Parents and other adults
read us storybooks and pass on family and lore cautionary tales. We ourselves are storytellers as
we recount our day to friends.
In Introduction to Fiction, EH 210A, we will read fiction that does some or all of these things.
Stories will include classics, contemporary fiction, and even graphic fiction. We will also read
The primary intent of this course is to make reading fiction enjoyable.
Of course, you will
write two short papers (there is that) and take two exams. But class experience depends on
student opinion and your honest response to the readings.
EH 210-B: Introduction to Fiction
Ullrich, TTH 12:30-1:50
This course is designed to introduce the student to the study of short fiction and the novel at the
college level. The primary goals of the course are (1) to introduce the student to the pleasures and
rigors of sophisticated literary analysis, (2) to develop the skills necessary to appreciate literature,
(3) to participate in the class discussion by voicing thoughtful, informed opinions.
Regular attendance and class participation are required. Typically, this course does not require a lot
of reading, just one, or perhaps two, short stories per class. But students MUST read each short
story at least twice, if not three times, before coming to class. Otherwise, the student has not spent
enough time with the text—not studied it sufficiently—to (1) know the text in a meaningful way,
(2) answer the assigned question thoughtfully, and (3) contribute to the class discussion.
EH 260: Survey of American Literature
Ashe, MW 11:00-12:20
We will use an anthology and at least one novel to explore American literary history and such
issues as the definitions of "American" (and "literature"), visions of America as a chosen or
paradisiacal land, the American dream, American disenchantment, American perceptions of
different cultures, and the role in our literature of individual, family, and community. I will try to
balance lecture on the historical relationships between authors with group (classroom) analysis of
individual texts both for themselves and for their contribution to broader American themes.
Students will complete a midterm, a research paper, and a final exam.