ENGL 205 Moral Dilemmas in Modern Short Fiction

Prerequisite: Completion of English composition core or permission of instructor
This course will explore a variety of ethical issues and moral dilemmas that arise in the fictional works of James Joyce (1882-1941) and Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923). Hailing from Ireland and New Zealand, respectively, Joyce and Mansfield present to readers a surprising and challenging array of quandaries, problems, puzzles, paradoxes, debates, and predicaments, both at the level of character and content, as well as with respect to form and aesthetics. Joyce’s Dubliners, published in 1914, and Mansfield’s The Garden Party, and Other Stories, published in 1922, delve into matters of class and gender bias, religious doubt, political turmoil, economic uncertainty, family secrets, workplace tensions, death, oppression, betrayal, addiction, censorship, friendship, obligation, empathy, responsibility, absence, evil, loss, love, loyalty, and representation. Our course will read the stories of Joyce and Mansfield not merely as a means of understanding the ethical issues and moral dilemmas that impacted the lives of literary characters and their living contemporaries over a hundred years ago, but also as a means of challenging ourselves to think about how we might respond today to such matters in our own lives and contexts.

Credits

3.0

Core

Ethics

Offered

Fall and Spring as Needed