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It has been a few years since I have taught an American literature survey course, either from the colonial period to 1865 or from 1865 to the present. When I teach survey courses likes this, ones that span multiple decades and centuries, I usually use an anthology. This semester, though, I wanted to try something different. Instead of using an anthology, which would limit my choices of texts to teach, I decided to construct my own readings.

With only 28 classes in the semester, I did not want to choose novels or longer texts such as plays by Arthur Miller of August Wilson. I didn’t want to do this because I know that students would read the assignments because they would be overwhelmed. So, I decided to focus solely on short stories. For me, short stories encapsulate the literary movements and periods that we need to cover, but even with short stories, I can’t cover everything. Anyone who has taught a survey course knows this. We choose what to teach in hopes that students will respond.

Below, you will find an overview of the course as well as a working reading list. This list will probably change some, but it provides an overview of the way I will structure the course. It is, I realize looking back at it, heavily influenced by Southern writers, which is not a problem, neccessarily, since I teach mostly Southern students. I want them to see Southern writers and texts that reflect what they know.

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Overview:

“When seriously explored, the short story seems to me the most difficult and disciplining form of prose writing extant. Whatever control and technique I may have I owe entirely to my training in this medium.” — Truman Capote

This course covers the past 160 years of American literature, stretching from the end of the Civil War in 1865 to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour in the summer of 2025. Even if we read once piece of literature for each of those years, we would have to have 160 or more classes this semester. As it stands, we only have about 28 overall classes this semester, more than five times less than the 160.

We could read works from a wide range of writers including Sarah Orne Jewett, Brett Harte, Jack London, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edith Wharton, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Henry James, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Richard Wright, Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, Frank Norris, Sylvia Plath, Edward P. Jones, Ann Petry, and . . . The list would keep growing and growing, encompassing much more that 28 classes we have to work with this semester.

We could read examples of each of the literary movements over the past 160 years. That would include realism, naturalism, regionalism, local color, modernism, postmodernism, the Harlem Renaissance, the Lost Generation, the gothic, science fiction, fantasy, existentialism, social protest literature, historical fiction, memoirs, Bronzeville, Chicano literature, . . . This is not even a complete list of movements and groups of just prose literature. We haven’t even touched on drama, poetry, or other forms of literature.

So, what can we do in the span of a single semester? How can we even attempt to touch on the wide range of artists, movements, and historical events over the past 160 years? Well, that is not necessarily an easy thing to do. However, we will try to do just that by narrowing our focus to one genre of literature — short stories — and reading texts that will allow us to talk about various movements, writers, and more over the course of the semester.

While one may think that reading a short story is easier than say reading a novel or poetry, it is not necessarily the case. Short stories, like poetry, require concise language, pacing, and, as Ron Rash puts it, “the ability to say something as vividly as possible.” Short stories are, by definition, shorter than novellas or novels. Yet, they can range anywhere from a few pages to dozens of pages. A two page story, like Crystal Wilkinson’s “Mr.” contains just as much as a an eighty page story like Ernest Gaines’ “A Long Day in November.” Less does not always mean less. Less does not always mean easier.

Eudora Welty said, “A short story is confined to one mood, to which everything in the story pertains. Characters, setting, time, events, are all subject to the mood. And you can try more empheral, more fleeting things in a story — you can work more by suggestion — than in a novel. Less is resolved, more is suggested, perhaps.” We will see this over the course of the semester, the ways that short stories contain, within themselves, a mood and action that does not necessarily lead to a resolution or catharsis. We will be left, after finishing stories, with more questions than answers. This lack of resolution allows us to think, to explore, to examine.

We will see, through the various authors that we read, the ways that artists influence one another. We will see this through reading stories like Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” and William Faulkner’s “Dry September” in relation to Ernest Gaines’ “The Sky is Gray.” Through this, we will trace literary lineages and movements over the course of the past 160 years, seeing the ways they form and change over time. The goal, as with any survey, is to provide you with a broad overview of American literature from 1865 to 2025. We cannot cover everything. That would take more than your undergraduate studies. Yet, we can examine a broad swath of literature to give you insight into literature over that time span.

Texts:

1. Allison, Dorothy. “River of Names.”
   2. Cable, George Washington. “Tite Poulette”
   3. Cheever, John. “The Swimmer”
   4. Chesnutt, Charles. “The Wife of His Youth.”
   5. Chopin, Kate. “Desiree’s Baby.”
   6. Chung, Gina. “Presence.”
   7. Dunbar, Paul Laurence. “Nelse Hatton’s Vengeance.”
   8. Erdrich, Louise. “The Red Convertible.”
   9. Faulkner, William “Dry September”
   10. Feldstein, Al and Wallace Wood. “Hate!”
   11. Fields, Julia. “Not Your Singing, Dancing Spade”
   12. Gaines, Ernest. “The Sky is Gray.”
   13. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper”
   14. Halaby, Laila “Hair, Prayer, and Men” 
   15. Howells, William Dean. “Editha.”
   16. Hurston, Zora Neale. “Sweat.”
   17. Kelley, William Melvin. “The Servant Problem.” 
   18. Krebs, Pauline “Airport”
   19. Krigstein, Bernie. “Master Race.”
   20. Machado, Carmen Maria. “The Husband Stitch.”
   21. McCullers, Carson. “The March”
   22. Morrison, Toni. “Recitatif.”
   23. O’Conner, Flannery “A Late Encounter with the Enemy”
   24. Taylor, Peter. “Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time”
   25. Twain, Mark. “The War Prayer”
   26. Welty, Eudora. “A Worn Path”
   27. Yunis, Alia “A Day at the Beach”

What texts would you suggest I add or consider for this course? As usual, let me know in the comments below. Make sure to follow me on Bluesky @silaslapham.bsky.social‬.