Target audience

English teachers at secondary I and secondary II-levels

Summary

As brief and concentrated texts, short stories have been for centuries a space of narrative and stylistic experimentation for many authors, and they are also readily enjoyable and most teachable texts. The fast-paced development of the storyline, the simplified but evocative settings, and the presence of intriguing characters and narrators require the close attention of readers and their active participation in the story. Most of the great masters of English prose since the nineteenth century have tried their hand at this genre, and some of them have even made of the short story the signature of their oeuvre.

Objectives

• Get an outline of the literary genre of the short story: historical development and formal aspects
• Grasp the use of literary devices such as point of view, imagery, foreshadowing and ambiguity
• Understand how short stories engage the readers’ attention and prompt them to participate in the narrative
• Consider the relation among individual stories and story sequences
• Compare different editions of short stories, including illustrated books, graphic novels and ebooks
• Discuss the pedagogical opportunities and learning benefits of short stories in the classroom

Certification

A certificate of participation will be delivered at the end of the course.

Programme

Morning lectures:
(9.00 a.m.-1.00 p.m.)

• Welcome by Martine Hennard Dutheil de la Rochère, Boris Vejdovsky and Marie Emilie Walz
• Matthew Scully: Edgar Allan Poe and the Invention of the Modern Short Story
• Sangam MacDuff: Epiphanies and Aporias: Teaching James Joyce’s Dubliners
• Boris Vejdovsky: One True Sequence: Hemingway’s In Our Time, the Iceberg, and its Tip

Afternoon talks and workshops:
(2.30 p.m.-5.00 p.m.)

• Marie Emilie Walz: Confronting Adolescents’ Realities in Fairy-Tale Rewritings: Francesca Lia Block’s The Rose and the Beast
• Guest speaker: Michelle Ryan-Sautour: Literary ethics and linguistic potency in Rikki Ducornet’s short fiction: from the mot-valise to the novella
• Books Books Books with Matthew Wake

Teaching approach

• Innovative readings of some of the most iconic short stories by leading specialists in the field
• Analysis of these deceptively simple texts to unveil their poetic, aesthetic, and pedagogical potentialities

Organization

• English Department, Faculté des lettres, Université de Lausanne

Training team

• Prof. Martine Hennard Dutheil de la Rochère, English and Comparative Literature, English department, UNIL
• Dr. Boris Vejdovsky, American Literature and Culture, English department, UNIL
• Dr. Marie Emilie Walz, English and Comparative Literature, English department, UNIL

Teachers

• Dr. Sangam MacDuff, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, English department, UNIL
• Dr. Michelle Ryan-Sautour, Senior Lecturer in English Literature (Université d’Angers) and Director of European Network for Short Fiction Research
• Dr. Matthew Scully, American Literature and Culture, English department, UNIL
• Dr. Boris Vejdovsky, Senior Lecturer in American Literature and Culture, English department, UNIL
• Matthew Wake, Librarian and owner of Books Books Books
• Dr. Marie Emilie Walz, Junior Lecturer in English and Comparative Literature, English department, UNIL

Practical information

Date and schedule

September 16th, 2022, 9.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m.

Course venue

UNIL-EPFL Campus, Lausanne

Registration

Course fee :

CHF 250.– *

* based on the price of the last edition

Registration deadline:

Registration Closed

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