ENG 104
Why study fiction? Current popular sentiment extols the virtues of reading stories to develop empathy. Reading about other people’s experiences that are strange and unfamiliar to us, the thinking goes, allows us to put ourselves in the place of the other.
Yet, when taken too far, the belief that reading enables us to inhabit another’s experience can be reductive and silencing, imbuing us with a false sense of our own entitlement to speak on things we haven’t experienced directly. In How to Read Now (2022), Elaine Castillo explains that “if we need fiction to teach us empathy, we don’t really have empathy, because empathy is not a one-stop destination; it’s a practice, ongoing, which requires work from us in our daily lives, for our daily lives.”
This introduction to fiction course focuses specifically on texts addressing the healthcare experience—whether that be someone’s experience with healthcare as a recipient, caregiver for a recipient, provider, or any combination of these. You will be reading primary sources—original works of fiction—as well as secondary sources—analyses of those original works of fiction. In addition to these readings, weekly assignments will include shorter writing assignments. You will also be asked to complete longer writing assignments—a mid-term and a final—specific instructions for which you will receive as the term progresses. The work of this course is designed to further develop your reading comprehension skills, deepening your ability to engage in comprehensive, ethical analyzations of how a text produces meaning. The overall goal of this course is to examine the responsibility we have as readers when encountering another’s story.
Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:
- Recognize and explain a variety of stylistic choices and literary devices and how they affect meaning
- Utilize academic search engines to find materials appropriate to use for literary analysis; cite sources using MLA conventions
- Analyze and evaluate various interpretations of a text
- Identify the various forms of diversity represented within a text while also recognizing the existence and validity of diversity not portrayed by the text
- Articulate the role fiction plays in helping readers understand themselves
These outcomes are adapted from the full PCC Course Content and Outcome Guide for ENG 104.
My online version of this class has been dynamically formatted to include interactive readings and videos, meaning you will be able to practice the skills you are learning as you are reading about them/watching them be explained.
Required textbooks: I use Open Educational Resources (OER) and provide materials through our course learning management system (D2L Brightspace).