“Short stories for long lives” in the words of a contemporary writer. A 300 level seminar designed as an introduction to short fiction that ranges across work written in French world-wide from our own day to the earliest times. A cross-section of works, examining the distinctive forms and changing function of the genre, including: oral and musical story-telling, fables, fairy-tales, and the sustained modern experiment with the short story that includes correspondence, memoir, fantasy, chronicle, graphic writing. From Camus to Marie de France, from Diop to Perrault and Mérimée. A study of today’s writers, engaging a timely topic in the Francophone world, in the lingo du jour—how to live together : Paris-Alger-Beirut. Throughout the semester, our work will train students in the methods and tools of critical analysis.