Evento

Masters and Masterpieces of the Short Story -- Bert Bender

Registering for this course by buying a ticket will admit you to all four sessions of this course:

Wednesdays, November 1, 8, 15, 29 10:00am - Noon

United Methodist Church Terrace Room, SLO

Four Sessions

$20 for LLCC members, $40 for non-members.

Register Soon for this course on Brown Paper Tickets

In this course we will read and discuss some of the worlds greatest short stories. We will begin by considering why so many great writers have worked with this form and why it is considered to be one of the most difficult forms of fiction. The instructor will then provide brief guidelines on the art of the short story and on how to read short stories.

Since the short story is a condensed, highly focused form of fiction, it gives us the opportunity to learn a great deal about an author and his/her values and art within a brief period of time. For example, we will learn a great deal about Leo Tolstoy's values and his world view by reading his (relatively short story) The Death of Ivan Ilych; or Herman Melville's values and world view from what we can see in Bartleby the Scrivener.

Our reading will be short enough for us all to finish them before discussing them.

The short stories that you will read in this course can be found in The Art of the Short Story, edited by Dana Gioia and R. S. Gwynn. It is published by Pearson, and is available in paperback on Amazon.com for $11.71 Used copies are available for a little less at abebooks.com and at EBay.

Bert Bender is a Professor Emeritus from Arizona State University, where he taught American literature for 33 years. His PhD dissertation (UC Irvine) was on the short story. He published a number of interpretations of short stories, three scholarly books on American fiction, and a memoir of his (other) life as a commercial fisherman.

If you would like to have the password for the member price for this course, go to www.lifelearnerscc.org for information on how you can become a member.