This study group will read and discuss short stories by six writers from the past whose works are still today significant and powerful. As well as discussing the achievement of each story, we will also be using these works to develop some broad ideas about the art of fiction and the experience of reading fiction. The six authors we will be studying are Nicolai Gogol; Anton Chekhov; D.H. Lawrence; Katherine Mansfield; Katherine Ann Porter; and Isaac Bashevis Singer. All of the stories are available on the internet or in inexpensive editions that can be purchased from Amazon. Members of the class are asked to read, for the first meeting, Gogol’s The Nose and The Overcoat at the following two links respectively:
http://www.yorku.ca/creet/satire/documents/thenose.pdf and https://www.yeyebook.com/en/nikolai-gogol-story-the-overcoat-cloak-full-english-text/
Ira Konigsberg is Professor Emeritus of English and Film at the University of Michigan. He will lead sessions on Mondays from April 13 through May 18.