ENG378H1F L0101

Special Topics: Alice Munro


Times

Tuesday 3 pm - 4 pm

Thursday 3 pm - 5 pm

Instructor

Dr. Sarah Caskey

E-mail: sarah.caskey@utoronto.ca

Brief Description of Course

When Alice Munro was awarded the Nobel Laureate for Literature in 2013, she was acknowledged as a “master of the contemporary short story.” This assessment represents the widely shared view that Munro has radically reshaped and reimagined what the short story can do. By way of close readings, this course will explore Munro’s writing from early pieces to her latest, focusing on her development of the short story form. Selections from her body of work and critical reception to her writing will also reveal her investigations of gender, class, region, perception, memory, realism, and above all, the processes of storytelling. An Alice Munro story captures the fullness and complexity of life, and this course will seek to explore and analyze the fullness and complexity of Munro’s literary aesthetic.

Required Reading(s)

Alice Munro’s Lives of Girls and Women (1971) and Alice Munro: My Best Stories (2009) are available from the UofT Bookstore. Other story selections are available on the Quercus Course Reading List.

First Three Authors/Texts

“The Peace of Utrecht,” Lives of Girls and Women, “The Beggar Maid.”

Method of Evaluation

  • Short Passage Analysis (25%)
  • Essay (40%)
  • Final Assignment (25%)
  • Participation (10%)