ENGL 214 - Introduction to Fiction

3 Credits: (3 lecture)

Course Description
The course investigates the short story, the novella, and the novel. A variety of selections will be studied to highlight development along with focusing on historic, cultural, structural, psychological, political, philosophic, and linguistic contexts by applying contemporary literary theory to the texts. This course meets the General Education competency of Critical Thinking (CT).

Prerequisite ENGL 101 or permission of instructor.

Pickering, James H. Reader’s Guide to the Short Story to Accompany Fiction 100, an Anthology of Short Fiction. Pearson Education, 2012.  

Objectives
The student will be able to:

A. Define the major elements of fiction. 

B. Trace the historical development of fiction. 

C. Interpret, all stories, novels, and novellas assigned. 

D. Apply a variety of critical theories to fictions read throughout the semester. 

E. Evaluate a diverse collection of evidence related to a specific research question/thesis. (CT) 

F. Synthesize the evidence and draw conclusions. (CT) 

G. Compile a written, verbal, or visual response to the evidence that acknowledges alternative explanations and views. (CT) 

Content
A. Basic elements of fiction: point of view, setting, tone, character, plot, and theme; also irony, metaphor, symbolism, allegory, etc.  

B. Historical development of fiction. 

C. Historical and cultural contexts of fiction. 

D. Contemporary critical theory (reader-response, Marxist, feminist, Psychoanalytical, archetypal, and formalist). 

Student Evaluation
A. Class participation 

B. Journals and/or response statements 

C. Journals and/or response statements, quizzes/exams 

D. Research/Literary paper and/or presentation using MLA guidelines 

E. Research/Literary paper and/or presentation using MLA guidelines  

F. Research/Literary paper and/or presentation using MLA guidelines 

G. Research/Literary paper and/or presentation using MLA guidelines 

Bibliography
Aaron, Jane E. The Little, Brown Compact Handbook. 9th ed., Pearson, 2013. 

Booker, Marvin Keith. Contemporary Speculative Fiction. Salem, 2013.  

EBSCOhost. 2016. 

Egan, Jennifer, and Heidi Pitlor. The Best American Short Stories 2014: Selected from US and Canadian Magazines. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015.  

Evans, Robert C. Contemporary Immigrant Short Fiction.  

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. 3rd ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2008. 

Introduction to Literary Context: American Short Fiction. Salem, 2013.  

Literary Reference Center Plus. 2016. 

Literature Criticism. 2016. 

May, Charles E. Critical Survey of Short Fiction. Salem, 2012.  

Salem Press. 2016.  

“The Online Writing Lab at Purdue (OWL).” Welcome to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL). 2016. 

Turabian, Kate. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 8th ed., University of Chicago Press, 2013.