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Let me tell you the essence of every story: something happens (plot) to someone (character) at a given time and place (setting), and someone tells you about it (narration). With these four elements—plot, character, setting, and narration—you can analyse every example of prose fiction ever written. Of course, it gets more complicated than that: each of these elements comes in various forms, and there are other things to consider, such as theme, genre, and style and technique (including figurative language, imagery and symbolism, irony, and humour). This course will equip you to analyse prose fiction by familiarizing you with the elements of which all prose narratives are composed, and which make those narratives both memorable and meaningful.

Each week students will be assigned one to three short stories (the number varies according to length), chosen to illustrate one or more of the elements listed above. Readings will mostly be drawn from the recent past, and will include work by Canadian and Indigenous writers. Toward the end of the term, we will read one short novel. Throughout, our focus will be not only on what a text means (details of what happens, any political or ethical claims it makes, its cultural significance), but also on how it means, or the techniques it uses to convey meaning to readers in ways that are memorable and distinct from other literary works. The essence of literary study is in connecting form to meaning, or the way in which a text is put together to the ideas it conveys. To that end, students will practise close reading, which is the process of noticing formal details and using them to support plausible interpretations.

ENGL 161 also trains students in academic essay writing; to that end, students write a series of short assignments focused on writing analytical paragraphs (which include a claim, evidence, and analysis), effective thesis statements, the citation of sources, and the risks of using generative AI tools such as ChatGPT.