123221 SE Literature Seminar / BA Paper / MA British/Irish/New English (2018S)

This class will focus on the analysis of examples of short fiction from Britain, with a focus on 21st century publications. Students will explore what the shortness of short fiction actually means, will look at ridiculously short fiction (6 words!), and discuss the implications of shortness. All this will of course be based on wide theoretical reading and close textual and contextual analysis of a number of short stories which considerably vary in size but are all equally up for critical scrutiny from a number of perspectives. At the same time, students will learn how to define research questions, compose abstracts, structure and plan a term paper and put conventions of academic writing into practice.