Old Crimes: Stories of Jill McCorkle
LIT8-10-Tues1
Marlene Hobel
This course will take place virtually on Zoom. Participation in this course requires a device (ideally a computer or tablet, rather than a cell phone) with a camera and microphone in good working order and basic familiarity with using Zoom and accessing email.
March 11 - May 20 (No Class April 15)
Like her celebrated predecessors Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, and Carson McCullers, Jill McCorkle gives us contemporary stories that contribute to the rich canon of Southern American fiction. She explores themes of memory, regret, and loss, reflecting the Southern preoccupation with the past and its influence on the present. Her characters often grapple with personal and collective histories, providing a nuanced view of small-town identity. She deftly blends humor with pathos to convey an authentic portrayal of human relationships.
In this course, we will sample McCorkle through her latest short story collection, Old Crimes: and Other Stories. The epigraph of the book, from an Arthur Miller play is apt: “Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.” These interconnected stories, set in a fictional small town in North Carolina, delve into the lives of characters within the same community, and sometimes the same families, who are burdened by regret, memory, and the enduring impact of secrets and mistakes. Each session will be a facilitated discussion, with the group exploring the stories and learning from each other. The course website (https://sites.google.com/view/old-crimes) details the assignments and background for each session.
I hope you’ll join me in exploring the old crimes (of the past, of the heart, of passion) of McCorkle’s characters.
More facilitated discussion than lecture.
Old Crimes: and Other Stories, by Jill McCorkle, 2024 Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, ISBN 9781616209735.
We’ll read one short story per week, and students are encouraged to read each story at least twice (first for the gist, second for a close read and analysis). Some other brief articles and videos. Roughly 2 hours/week.
Marlene Hobel began her professional life teaching English to first generation college students in South Carolina. Next, she taught reading to youthful offenders in prison, where she felt incarcerated daily. She escaped into the corporate world and enjoyed a long career in corporate communications for a global environmental engineering firm. She has graduate degrees in English Literature and Counseling. Specializing in short stories, Marlene has led courses exploring authors Lorrie Moore, Lauren Groff, Nancy Hale, Edith Pearman, and Hilma Wolitzer and one on the theme of motherhood. She often moderates BOLLI’s New Yorker Fiction Salon.