The Short Story
The Short Story (AL) This course approaches the short story as a distinct prose genre, beginning with work by Edgar Allen Poe and Guy de Maupassant and concluding with stories by contemporary authors. We will examine the particularly notable growth of the genre in America and survey various trends in the form, from "local color" sketches and realistic tales to experiments in modernism and postmodernism. Throughout, we will consider issues of structure, characterization, style, and voice. Other authors may include Anderson, Barthelme, Cheever, Chekhov, Hemingway, Joyce, Moore, O'Connor, Twain, and Welty.
There are weekly reflections that are 1-2 pages every week, and 3 papers total. The first one is a 5-6 page paper on one of the stories read in the first half, the second is a 11-12 page comparison/contrast of 2 short stories. The last one is the 'final,' also 5-6 pages, which he gives a ton of prompts that you can choose from. He's a great lecturer with really cool insights (if a bit scattered at times), so I'd recommend doing the readings, but you can definitely get away only doing half of them.
There are weekly reflections that are 1-2 pages every week, and 3 papers total. The first one is a 5-6 page paper on one of the stories read in the first half, the second is a 11-12 page comparison/contrast of 2 short stories. The last one is the 'final,' also 5-6 pages, which he gives a ton of prompts that you can choose from. He's …Read more
Professor Cohen loves what he does. Sometimes the discussions would go all over the place, but he is very passionate, accommodating, and helpful. I think that I would take a class with him again if the opportunity arose.
Robert Cohen is one of Middlebury's best. If you have the chance to take this class, you should. I am not an English major and I am not planning to be one, but this course if my favorite at Middlebury so far. Robert Cohen is an amazing lecturer. The workload for this classes very manageable and the weekly reflection papers take up to an hour at most. Almost all of the stories he chooses for the class to read are phenomenal. I found that a lot of these stories made me reflect on my own life experiences, and I believe that I left this class as a different person than I came in as.
Robert Cohen is one of Middlebury's best. If you have the chance to take this class, you should. I am not an English major and I am not planning to be one, but this course if my favorite at Middlebury so far. Robert Cohen is an amazing lecturer. The workload for this classes very manageable and the weekly reflection papers take up to …Read more
Easy course with interesting material. Enjoyed reading short stories every week without worrying about overbearing homework. 2-3 bigger papers over the semester with about 1 short response paper due weekly.
Rob Cohen is the most beautiful lecturer I have ever had the pleasure of hearing. His way with language is stunning. Classes usually started off as a an open discussion, and after students had the opportunity to talk about the readings Cohen would take over and lecture. There were informal weekly discussion papers and 2? big essays, as well as several short stories assigned for each class. I feel like it was pretty run-of-the mill workload for an English course.
Rob Cohen is the most beautiful lecturer I have ever had the pleasure of hearing. His way with language is stunning. Classes usually started off as a an open discussion, and after students had the opportunity to talk about the readings Cohen would take over and lecture. There were informal weekly discussion papers and 2? big essays, …Read more
This is my second class with Prof. Robert Cohen. He is a great professor who adds humor and an interesting take on everything we read. Highly recommend this course or any course with him that Midd offers.
I am enjoying this course. I like most of the stories we read and it's nice that there isn't a ton of writing to do. The weekly response papers are kind of a pain but they're just graded on completion.