In a Class by Themselves
Garcia Marquez, Munro, Trevor

Instructor:  Barbara Schwartz

Course Description:  Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alice Munro, and William Trevor are “writers for grown up people.”  Their short stories and novels are rich in insight, honest, and bold.  Each writes with compassion, sympathy and even dark humor.  Each has been acclaimed by readers and critics around the world.

Like fine writers before them, each has an unmistakable signature – a storehouse of images and characters and a way of perceiving the world that is his or hers alone.  In this course we will look at the magical realism of Garcia Marquez, the complexity of small things in the work of Alice Munro, and the ironic, chiseled prose of William Trevor.

While we will concentrate primarily on the written word, we will also look at some of their writing that has been translated into film.

Six Discussions

Weeks 1 and 2:           Gabriel Garcia Marquez
 Readings:*     “The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”
                                    “The Incredible and Sad Tale of Innocent Erendira
                                    and Her Heartless Grandmother”
                                    (Please read these for the first meeting.)

Weeks 3 and 4:           Alice Munro
 Readings:*     “The Bear Went Over the Mountain”*
                                    “Runaway”

Weeks 5 and 6:           William Trevor
Readings:*      “At the Birth”
                                    “The Room”

* Stories by Garcia Marquez are in Collected Stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  (Harper Perennial).  The four stories by Munro and Trevor may be found at www.NewYorker.com.  A list of additional readings and sources will be distributed at the first meeting.

Biographical Information: Barbara Schwartz received her B.Ed. from the University of Miami and her M.A. from Fairfield University.  She taught high school English for thirty years in Stamford, CT, a multicultural education course for the University of New Haven, and writing and literature courses for Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning at Florida Atlantic University.