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I'm OK with a a course focusing on male writers, just as I'm OK with a course which focuses on females writers. "Leading Female Authors of the 18th Century", etc. In an advanced literature course, it can be valuable to select a very narrow subset of authors, themes, styles, etc. I would hate for an introductory course to contain such a limited view.
Gilmore says, "I teach modern short fiction to third and first-year students. So I teach mostly Russian and American authors." I think this is too narrow a sample of authors for such a broad course. But if the course were to be described as "Post World War II short fiction from the two major super-powers of the Cold War, America and Russia", then his selection of authors would certainly be appropriate.
I tried to come up with some ludicrous examples in other disciplines --- Introduction to Biology, with an instructor who doesn't include arachnids because he doesn't like spiders. In a general course, an instructor is harming his students when he fails to include a broad and representative sample. In an advanced or specialized course, it certainly makes sense that the instructor may have very limited or restricted content -- and as long as this is made known to students in advance, that's OK with me.
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