Kyle McCarthy

How does fiction shape our understanding of what it means to grow up? In this course, we will read and respond to a range of 20th- and 21st-century short stories and novellas that reinvigorate the classic literary genre of the bildungsroman, which traditionally depicts a young person’s moral or spiritual education. As we read, we will examine how these works use voice and narrative structure to convey growth, asking questions such as: What is knowledge? And how is the (growing, changing) self constituted by its particular social world? We will also respond to in-class creative prompts to develop our own fictional coming-of-age tales. Readings will potentially include works by Jamaica Kincaid, Justin Torres, Sayaka Murata, Graham Greene, Carson McCullers, Jeanette Winterson, and Toni Morrison, among others. Students will workshop an evolving short story or novella excerpt over the course of the semester and also read and respond to their peers’ work.

What do coming of age stories teach us about growing up—and what do they tell us about narrative? In this course, we will read classic and contemporary short stories that re-invigorate the literary genre of the bildungsroman, which traditionally depicts a young person’s moral or spiritual education. As we read, we will study both the craft and the literary themes of these stories, mining them for information about structure, exposition, subtext, and character. Using a host of in-class writing prompts, we will develop and workshop our own coming-of-age tales. Readings will include stories by James Baldwin, A.S. Byatt, Michael Clune, Kelly Link, Herman Melville, ZZ Packer, and Leo Tolstoy, among others. Students will be required to workshop once over the course of the semester, and discuss their peers’ work both in class and on the page.