Prof Bruce Taylor
UWEC
English 274 Introduction to Short Fiction
see also, Class Requirements,
Introduction: What The Hell Are You Doing Here?: The World As Story
Links
YouTube - Miss Capucine - Once Upon A Time...
In Class Assignment:
In Class
1. Scenes from:
Rashoman f
See also
Rashomon (film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Review: Rashomon
Rashômon (1950)
Akutagawa, Ryunosuke, Rashomon (read at least pp 1-11)
TALKING ABOUT STORIES: SOME ‘STUDENT’ STORIES
Reading Assignment
Class Notes Judy Sherman
Hay is for the Horses Travis Stevens
Javelin Kris Simonson
Journal assignments:
1. Try to identify the elements s from Talking About Stories.doc in each of the stories
2. See Journal assignments
In Class
1. Prepare a story to tell, no more than 3 minutes long
2. In your journal make the longest list you can of questions a person might ask about a story
FAIRY TALES
Reading Assignment
Beauty and the beast
First one and at least one more and one more
See Also Animal Brides
See also Beauty and the Beast Home
See Also beauty and the beast - Google Image Search
Or
Little Red Riding Hood Project: Home Page
First one and at least one more and one more
OR
Cinderella Stories
First one and at least one more and one more
Or
The Annotated Sleeping Beauty
First one and at least one more and one more
Journal assignments
1. Prepare for Beauty and the beast and one more a Summary of the Differences for at least two
different versions of that tale similar to the sample; try to concentrate on significant differences
and tell why you think they are significant
A Sample report: Hansel and Gretel by the Grimm Brothers: A comparison of the
versions of 1812 and 1857
See also Fairy Tales
2. See Journal assignments
In Class
L:\Short Fiction Eng 274\FAIRY TALES.doc
SOME CLASSICS OF THE CANON
Reading Assignment
The Overcoat by Nikolai Gogol 1815
Young Goodman Brown site 1837
The Tell Tale Heart 1895
The Tell-Tale Heart Summary & Essays - Edgar Allan Poe
The Tell Tale Heart (2005)
The Gift of the Magi 1906
The Gift of the Magi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant 1907
The Necklace Summary & Essays - Guy de Maupassant
Study Questions - The Necklace
James Joyce: Araby 1916
Araby
Journal assignments
1. What are some of the things we mean when we say a ‘classic” story?
2. What do we mean by ‘the canon”
3. Look for similarities and differences in tonight’s stories. Look for groupings. What if anything does
a consideration of chronology reveal? (see also
A Short History of the Short Story, The American Short Story: A Selective Chronology,
In Class
YGB annotated
Young Goodman Brown (1993)
274 files\274 stories misc\Araby.doc
CLOSE READING : THE USE AND IMPORTANCE OF DETAIL.
Reading Assignment
The Things They Carried Tim O’Brien
“On The Things They Carried Bobbie Anne Mason” in Text
“
See Journal assignments
In Class Exercise:
1. It’s in the Bag: A reading of Students Backpacks
2. The World’s pickiest detail quiz
USING DETAIL AND IMAGERY TO DEVELOP CHARACTER & SETTING
Reading Assignment
The World Traveler Karen Loeb
Chapter 3 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
No Immediate Danger Mary Slëchta ol
Everyday Use Alice Walker in text
See also Study Guide Alice Walker's "Everyday Use"
See Journal assignments
Pay special attention to character development & setting
Count how many settings in No Immediate Danger Mary Slëchta ol
Use Study Guide Alice Walker's "Everyday Use" for journal response
In Class
Top Questions for Fictional Characters -- Questions to Help in Creating Characters
Fiction Factor - Creating Characters
Fiction Factor - Seven Common Character Types
L:\120\Syllabus 120_files\101 Most influential people who never lived.doc
L:\Short Fiction Eng 274\274 files\Alice Walker Groups Questions.doc
Exercise:
: Character Sequencing
SHOW AND TELL: PAGE STAGE AND SCREEN
Reading Assignment
Writing Fiction: Scenes and half-scenes
The Blue Hotel Stephen Crane
The King of the Bingo Game Ralph Ellison
See Journal assignments
In Class Exercise:
Page vs Screen. After viewing the first 2 minutes of Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck
a number of times. Try writing the first paragraph or two of how that story would start.
MIDTERM EXAM
SOME ‘CLASSIC’ STORIES BY/ABOUT WOMEN
Reading Assignment
Why I Live at the PO Eudora Welty IN TEXT
I Stand here Ironing Tillie Olsen in Text
Revolt of Mother Mary Wilkins Freeman in Text
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall Katherine Anne Porter in Text
Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman in Text,
See Journal assignments
SOME MORE ‘RECENT’ STORIES BY/ABOUT WOMEN
Reading Assignment
Where are you going, where have you been Joyce Carol Oates, in Text
Smooth Talk (1985)
Shiloh Bobbie Anne Mason in Text
Family Furnishings Alice Munro in Text
Lust Susan Minot in Text
Find and Replace Anne Beattie in Text
In Class
274 files\3.doc
Listen - StoryCorps
Journal assignments
1. Look for similarities and differences between these stories and those the group read for the
previous week. What are some of the reasons you think they exist?
SOME “EXPERIMENTAL” STORIES
Reading Assignment
Happy Ending Margaret Atwood in Text
Mercury
How to Become a Writer Lorie Moore In Text
Lost In The Funhouse John Barth in Text
Babysitter Robert Coover (Handout)
Exercise B.E. Taylor
Journal assignments
What do kinds of things do these stories seem to have in common? In what ways are these stories
different from nearly all of the stories we have read so far? What are some of the reasons this seems
to be so?
In Class
Metafiction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
exhaustion
The Non-linear Tradition in Literature
Hyperizons: Hypertext Fiction
Other Hypertext Fiction Sites
Baltimore City Paper: ARTS A New Book Revisits Baltimore's Most Notorious Literary Tussle
VideoDetective.com - Preview The Babysitter Trailer -
SOME “OTHER VOICES”
Reading Assignment
Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fight In Heaven (In Text)
Sandra Cicneros The House On Mango Street(In Text)
Louise Erdich The Red Convertible (In Text)
Gish Jen Who’s Irish (In Text)
Jamica Kincaid Girl (In Text)
Leslie Marmon Silko Yellow Woman (In Text)
Amy Tan Two Kinds (In Text)
Journal assignments
RAYMOND CARVER WEEK ONE
Journal assignments
look for similarities between the stories
Consider as review such items as – objects, subject matter, plots, characters, tones, setting,
themes, motifs, techniques
And biography
Reading Assignment
Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver - Biography and Poems by AmericanPoems.com
Raymond Carver: Chronology
Texts
Where I'm Calling from: New and Selected Stories (Vintage Contemporaries) by Raymond Carver
Bicycles, Muscles Cigarettes
They’re Not You Husband
What Did You Do In San Francisco Fat
Neighbors
Gazebo
One More Thing
Little Things
In Class
Raymond Carver Stories as they might be described in you TV guide
VOICE: RAYMOND CARVER WEEK TWO
Journal assignments
look for similarities among the stories
Continue to consider as review such items as – objects, subject matter, plots, characters, tones,
setting, themes, motifs, techniques and biography. Do these further stories reinforce observations
you had made previously, just more of the same, or are there differences, contradictions,
extensions ? In any case prepare examples from all the stories to support your reading
Reading Assignment
Carver’s Vision
The New York Review of Books: Looking for Raymond Carver
Primary Sources: “Beginners,” Edited : The New Yorker
Where I'm Calling from: New and Selected Stories (Vintage Contemporaries) by Raymond Carver
Are These Actual Miles,
Why’d Don’t You Dance,
A Serious Talk,
So Much Water So Close To Home,
Where I’m coming from
Jerry And Molly And Sam (Handout)
Distance,
The Third Things That Killed My Father Off,
VOICE: RAYMOND CARVER WEEK THREE
The Interactive Short Cuts
Short Cuts (1993): Reviews
Short Cuts, Narrative Film and Hypertext
Journal assignments
look for similarities among the stories
Continue to consider as review such items as – objects, subject matter, plots, characters, tones,
setting, themes, motifs, techniques and biography. Do these further stories reinforce observations
you had made previously, just more of the same, or are there differences, contradictions,
extensions ? In any case prepare examples from all the stories to support your reading
Try last weeks in class exercise to these stories
Try to apply the comments and questions in Carver’s Vision
In Class
L:\Short Fiction Eng 274\Nobody said.doc
Reading Assignment
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
Where I’m Calling From
Cathedral
A Small Good Thing
Errand
Chef’s House
and two other stories from “New Stories”
See also
Prose as Architecture: Two Interviews with Raymond Carver
Carver’s Couples Talk About Love
Tribute To Raymond Carver
Short Cuts 1993
comment by Scorsese
other comments
Journal assignments
Continue to consider as review such items as – objects, subject matter, plots, characters, tones,
setting, themes, motifs, techniques and biography. Do these further stories reinforce observations
you had made previously, just more of the same, or are there differences, contradictions,
extensions? In any case prepare examples from all the stories to support your reading.
FINAL EXAM