本书将从四个方面入手：介绍要素，如视角、人物、环境；纵览历史，如美国短篇小说；着手性别，如女性短篇小说家及作品；聚焦题材，如战争、科幻短篇小说。

本书依主题分八个单元：期望与挫败，顺从与反抗，生命与死亡，单纯与经验，疏远与交流，偏见与超越，爱情与痛苦，虚构与真实。每个单元的小说从不同的视角审视同一主题。如从女性之于男性，孩子之于成人，个人之于政府的关系考察“顺从与反抗”；从女孩和男孩成长的不同视角探索“单纯与经验”。人生经验的微妙复杂使得主题的变奏在不同作品中得以实现。有的作品反映人生的孤独和异化；有的作品则努力尝试爱的交流；有的作品反映偏见；有的作品超越偏见。

本书使用对象为英语专业及非英语专业高年级学生，希望在帮助学生优化语言技能的同时，提高文学素养。

Unit 1 Expectation and Frustration

Text A Eleven — Sandra Cisneros

Text B Salvation — Langston Hughes

Text C Ten Indians — Ernest Hemingway

Text D Crickets — Robert Olen Butler

Unit 2 Repression and Rebellion

Text A The Story of an Hour — Kate Chopin

Text B Sredni Vashtar — Hector Hugh Munro

Text C Gertrude Talks Back — Margaret Atwood

Text D Saboteur — Ha Jin

Unit 3 Life and Death

Text A Indian Camp— Ernest Hemingway

Text B A Sunrise on the Veld — Doris Lessing

Text C The Masque of the Red Death — Edgar Allen Poe

Text D Death in the Woods — Sherwood Anderson

Unit 4 Innocence and Experience

Text A The Grave — Katherine Anne Porter

Text B Araby — James Joyce

Text C One Holy Night — Sandra Cisneros

Text D Wild Swans — Alice Munro

Unit 5 Alienation and Communication

Text A A Tree. A Rock. A Cloud. — Carson McCullers

Text B Hands — Sherwood Anderson

Text C Gaston — William Saroyan

Text D Present — Ali Smith

Unit 6 Prejudice and Transcendence

Text A Cathedral — Raymond Carver

Text B Everything That Rises Must Converge — Flannery O'Connor

Text C All He Need Is Feet — Chester Himes

Text D Dry September — William Faulkner

Unit 7 Love and Suffering

Text A The Lady with the Dog — Anton Chekhov

Text B A Rose for Emily — William Faulkner

Text C The Nightingale and the Rose — Oscar Wilde

Text D Bliss — Katherine Mansfield

Unit 8 Fiction and Reality

Text A How to Tell a True War Story — Tim O'Brien

Text B The Garden of Forking Paths — Jorge Luis Borges

Text C Happy Endings — Margaret Atwood

Text D The Swimmer — John Cheever