Syllabus:
- Nina Baym, ed.: The Norton Anthology of American Literature (NAAL; Shorter Seventh Edition). Selected stories (see below).
- A.S. Byatt, ed.: The Oxford Book of English Short Stories (Oxford; OUP, 2003). Selected stories (see below).
- Charles E. May, ed.: The New Short Story Theories, (Ohio UP, 1994). Pages xv-xvi, 59-64, 73-191, 218-30.
Short Stories (all from the two anthologies above):
- Sherwood Anderson, “Hands” (NAAL)
- James Baldwin, “Going to Meet the Man” (NAAL)
- Ambrose Bierce, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (NAAL)
- Raymond Carver, “Cathedral” (NAAL)
- Kate Chopin, “The Storm” (NAAL)
- F.Scott Fitzgerald, "Babylon Revisited" (NAAL)
- Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, “A New England Nun” (NAAL)
- Bret Harte, “The Luck of Roaring Camp” (NAAL)
- Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Birth-Mark” (NAAL)
- Zora Neale Hurston, "The Gilded Six-Bits" (NAAL)
- Henry James, "The Real Thing" (NAAL)
- Maxine Hong Kingston, "No Name Woman" (NAAL)
- Ian McEwan, "Solid Geometry" (Oxford)
- Arthur Morrison, "Behind the Shade" (Oxford)
- Flannery O'Connor, "Good Country People" (NAAL)
- Philip Roth, "Defender of the Faith" (NAAL)
- Saki, "The Toys of Peace" (Oxford)
- Alice Walker, “Everyday Use” (NAAL)
- Eudora Welty, “Petrified Man” (NAAL)
- Virginia Woolf, “Solid Objects” (Oxford)