Short Fiction : Classic and Contemporary

by Bohner, Charles H.; Grant, Lyman

• ISBN13: 9780130406835
• ISBN10: 013040683X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-01-01
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

For undergraduate courses on The Short Story; Introduction to Fiction; and/or Introduction to Literature that use genre-specific books. This book is an exceptionally wide-ranging alphabetically arranged collection of stories spanning all genres of short fiction. It includes myth, fairy tale, humor, western, detective, Magic Realism, gothic, fantasy, and folktale. The selections total 137 stories by 113 writers.

Table of Contents

I. INTRODUCTION TO SHORT FICTION.

The Truth of Fiction. The Experience of Fiction. The Elements of Fiction.

II. READING FICTION.

Who Are We as Readers? What Kind of Story Are We Reading? Asking Questions about the Story. Keeping a Reading Journal. Annotating a Story with Personal Impressions. Annotating a Story for the Elements of Fiction.

III. SHORT FICTION.

Dead Men's Path, Chinua Achebe.
A Bicycle, Iqbal Ahmad.
Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock, Sherman Alexie.
And of Clay Are We Created, Isabel Allende.
Context: I'm Working on My Charm, Dorothy Allison.
I Want to Know Why, Sherwood Anderson.
Rape Fantasies, Margaret Atwood.

Context: My Mother Would Rather Skate Than Scrub Floors: An Interview with Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates.

Awakening, Isaac Babel.
Sonny's Blues, James Baldwin.
A Passion in the Desert, Honoré de Balzac.
The Lesson, Toni Cade Bambara.
Lost in the Funhouse, John Barth.
City of Churches, Donald Barthelme.
What Was Mine, Ann Beattie.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Ambrose Bierce.
The Other Duel, Jorge Luis Borges.

Context: Writing, a Conversation with Norman Thomas di Giovanni and Frank MacShane, Jorge Luis Borges.

The Werewolf, Angela Carter.
Cathedral, Ramond Carver.
Loverboys, Anna Castillo.
Paul's Case, Willa Cather.
The Swimmer, John Cheever.

A Writer in Depth: The Darling, Anton Chekhov. Gooseberries, Anton Chekhov. The Lady with the Dog, Anton Chekhov.
Context: Summary Observations on the Short Story, Harold Bloom. From His Letters, Anton Chekhov. Lady with the Little Dog, Vladimir Nabokov Chekhov.
A Writer in Depth: Regret, Kate Chopin. A Respectable Woman, Kate Chopin. The Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin.
Context: On Certain Brisk, Bright Days, Kate Chopin.

Barbie-Q, Sandra Cisneros.

Context: Guadelupe the Sex Goddess, Sandra Cisneros.

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, Samuel Clemens.
The Other Wife, Colette.
The Secret Sharer, Joseph Conrad.
Axolotl, Julio Cortázar.
The Open Boat, Stephen Crane.

Context: Stephen Crane's Own Story, Stephen Crane.

The Point, Charles D'Ambrosio.
Some Notes on Psychoanalysis and Writing, Leslie Dick.
The Blue Jar, Isak Dinesen.

A Writer in Depth: Battle Royal, Ralph Ellison. King of the Bingo Game, Ralph Ellison. A Party down at the Square, Ralph Ellison.
Context: What America Would Be Like without Blacks, Ralph Ellison.

Dry September, William Faulkner.
A Rose for Emily, William Faulkner.
A Scrap of Time, Ida Fink.
Babylon Revisited, F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Context: The Crack-Up, F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Old Woman Magoun, Mary Wilkins Freeman.
Chac-Mool, Carlos Fuentes.
The Sky Is Gray, Ernest J. Gaines.
Tiny, Smiling Daddy, Mary Gaitskill.
Tuesday Siesta, Gabriel García Márquez.
Hollywood!, Dagoberto Gilb.
The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman.
A Jury of Her Peers, Susan Glaspell.
The Overcoat, Nikolai Gogol.

Context: The Legacy of Gogol's Overcoat, Frank O'Connor.

The Life of the Imagination, Nadine Gordimer.
Two Gentle People, Graham Greene.
The Birthmark, Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Young Goodman Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Context: The Brief Prose Tale, Edgar Allan Poe.

Looking for a Rain God, Bessie Head.

Context: Let Me Tell a Story Now, Bessie Head.

Hills Like White Elephant, Ernest Hemingway.
Soldier's Home, Ernest Hemingway.
Spunk, Zora Neale Hurston.
The Lottery, Shirley Jackson.

Context: Biography of a Story, Shirley Jackson.

The Real Thing, Henry James.
Who's Irish, Gish Jen.
Car Crash While Hitchiking, Denis Johnson.
Araby, James Joyce.

A Writer in Depth: The Country Doctor, Frans Kafka. The Hunger Artist, Frans Kafka. The Metamorphosis, Frans Kafka.
Context: Summary Observations on the Short Story, Harold Bloom. From Somewhere Behind, Milan Kundera. The Metamorphosis, Vladimir Nabokov.

The Circling Hand, Jamaica Kincaid.
Girl, Jamaica Kincaid.
Not a Good Girl, Perri Klass.
Let the Old Dead Make Room for the Young Dead, Milan Kundera.

Context: From Somewhere Behind, Milan Kundera.

My Son the Fanatic, Hanif Kureishi.
Haircut, Ring Lardner.
My Vocation, Mary Lavin.
The Rocking-Horse Winner, D.H. Lawrence.
Gravity, David Leavitt.
The Professor's Houses, Ursula K. Le Guin.

Context: From Where Do You Get Your Ideas From?, Ursula K. Le Guin.

A Sunrise on the Veld, Doris Lessing.
Small Changes, Primo Levi.

Context: To a Young Reader, Primo Levi.

To Build a Fire, Jack London.
Half a Day, Naguib Mahfouz.
The Magic Barrel, Bernard Malamud.
A Dill Pickle, Katherine Mansfield.
Miss Brill, Katherine Mansfield.

Context: A Letter to John Murray, Katherine Mansfield.

Shiloh, Bobbie Ann Mason.
The Outstation, W. Somerset Maugham.
The Necklace, Guy de Maupassant.
Bartleby the Scrivener, Herman Melville.
Patriotism, Yukio Mishima.
A Father, Bharati Mukherjee.
Boys and Girls, Alice Munro.
The Passenger, Vladimir Nabokov.

Context: Lady with the Little Dog, Vladimir Nabokov Chekhov. The Metamorphis, Vladimir Nabokov Kafka.

Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?, Joyce Carol Oates.
Shopping, Joyce Carol Oates.

Context: The Making of a Writer, Joyce Carol Oates. My Mother Would Rather Skate Than Scrub Floors: An Interview with Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates.

The Creature, Edna O'Brien.
The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien.
Everything That Rises Must Converge, Flannery O'Connor.
A Good Man Is Hard to Find, Flannery O'Connor.

Context: Flannery O'Connor on Her Own Work.

Guests of the Nation, Frank O'Connor.

Context: The Legacy of Gogol's Overcoat, Frank O'Connor.

I Stand Here Ironing, Tillie Olsen.
A Conversation with My Father, Grace Paley.

A Writer in Depth: The Cask of the Amontillado, Edgar Allan Poe. The Fall of the House of Usher, Edgar Allan Poe. The Purloined Letter, Edgar Allan Poe.
Context: The Brief Prose Tale, Edgar Allan Poe.

The Flowering Judas, Katerine Anne Porter.
The Grave, Katherine Anne Porter.

Context: The Writing of The Flowering Judas, Katherine Anne Porter.

An Evening Meal, Reynolds Price.

A Writer in Depth: …And the Earth Did Not Devour Him, Tomás Rivera. Looking for Borges, Tomás Rivera. The Salamanders, Tomás Rivera.
Context: Remembering, Discovery, and Volition in the Literary Imagination, Tomás Rivera.

The Conversion of the Jews, Philip Roth.
Good Advice Is Rarer Than Rubies, Salman Rushdie.

Context: Commonwealth Literature Does Not Exist, Salman Rushdie.

The Lady of the Manor of Longeville, or a Woman's Revenge, Donatien Alphonse Francois compte de Sade.
Erostratus, Jean Paul Sartre.

Context: From For Whom Does One Write?, Jean Paul Sartre.

I-80 Nebraska, M.490-M.205, John Sayles.
The Mortal Immortal, Mary Shelley.

A Writer in Depth: Lullaby, Leslie Marmon Silko. Storyteller, Leslie Marmon Silko. Yellow Woman, Leslie Marmon Silko.
Context: An Interview with Leslie Marmon Silko, Kim Barnes.

Through the Story We Hear Who We Are, Leslie Marmon Silko.
Gimpel the Fool, Isaac Bashevis Singer.
Dummy, Susan Sontag.

Context: From Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag.

The Chrysanthemums, John Steinbeck.
A Pair of Tickets, Amy Tan.
The Death of Ivan Ilych, Leo Tolstoy.
A&P, John Updike.
The Verb to Kill, Luisa Valenzuela.
The Moths, Helena María Viramontes.

A Writer in Depth: Roselily, Alice Walker. To Hell with Dying, Alice Walker. The Welcome Table, Alice Walker.
Context: The Old Artist: Notes on Mr. Sweet, Alice Walker. An Interview with Eudora Welty, Alive Walker.

Suicide as a Sort of Present, David Foster Wallace.

Context: Act Natural, David Foster Wallace.

A Petrified Man, Eudora Welty.
A Worn Path, Eudora Welty.

Context: An Interview with Eudora Welty, Alice Walker. Is Phoenix Jackson's Grandson Really Dead, Eudora Welty.

Roman Fever, Edith Wharton.
Damballah, John Edgar Wideman.
The Use of Force, William Carlos Williams.
Newton, Jeanette Winterson.

Context: From A Work of My Own, Jeanette Winterson.

Kew Gardens, Virginia Woolfe.

Context: From Craftmanship, Virginia Woolf.

The Man Who Was Almost a Man, Richard Wright.

Context: From For Whom Does One Write?, Jean Paul Sartre.

Kokura, Mary-Kim Arnold and Mathew Derby.
Reach, Michael Joyce.

Context: From Hypertext Fiction, Michael Joyce.

Ferris Wheel, Deena Larsen.

IV. CONTEXT: WRITERS ON WRITING.

Context, Dorothy Allison.
From a Leslie Marmon Silko Interview, Kim Barnes.
Summary Observations on the Short Story, Harold Bloom.
Borges on Writing: A Conversation with Norman Thomas di Giovanni and Frank MacShane, Jorge Luis Borges.
From His Letters, Anton Chekhov.
On Certain Brisk, Bright Days, Kate Chopin.
Guadalupe the Sex Goddess, Sandra Cisneros.
Stephen Crane's Own Story, Stephen Crane.
What America Would Be Like without Blacks, Ralph Ellison.
The Crack-Up, F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Let Me Tell a Story Now…, Bessie Head.
Biography of a Story, Shirley Jackson.
From Hypertext Fiction, Michael Joyce.
From Somewhere Behind, Milan Kundera.
From “Where Do You Get Your Ideas From?,” Ursula LeGuin.
To a Young Reader, Primo Levi.
A Letter to Richard Murray, Katherine Mansfield.
Chekhov's “The Lady with the Little Dog,” Vladimir Nabokov.
Kafka's “The Metamorphosis,” Vladimir Nabokov.
The Making of a Writer, Joyce Carol Oates.
“My Mother Would Rather Skate Than Scrub Floors” : An Interview with Margaret Atwood, Joyce Carol Oates.
On Her Own Work, Flannery O'Connor.
The Legacy of Gogol's “Overcoat,” Frank O'Connor.
The Brief Prose Tale, Edgar Allan Poe.
The Writing of “Flowering Judas,” Katherine Anne Porter.
Remembering, Discovery, and Volition in the Literary Imagination, Tomás Rivera.
“Commonwealth Literature” Does Not Exist, Salman Rushdie.
From “For Whom Does One Write,” Jean Paul Sartre.
Through the Stories We Hear Who We Are, Leslie Marmon Silko.
From Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag.
An Interview with Eudora Welty, Alice Walker.
The Old Artist: Notes on Mr. Sweet, Alice Walker.
Act Natural, David Foster Wallace.
“Is Phoenix Jackson's Grandson Really Dead?,” Eudora Welty.
From a Work of My Own, Jeanette Winterson.
From Craftsmanship, Virginia Woolf.

V. APPROACHING FICTION CRITICALLY.

The Formalist, New Critical Approach. The Biographical Approach. The Historical and New Historicist Approaches. The Psychological Approach. The Mythological Approach. The Sociological/Marxist Approach. The Feminist Approach and Gender Studies. The Ecocritical Approach. The Reader-Response Approach. The Structuralist and Post-Structuralist Approaches.

VI. WRITING ABOUT FICTION.

Think about Your Purpose. Think about Your Reader. Think about Your Critical Approach. Develop a Thesis. Return to the Story. Review Biographical, Historical, and Critical Sources. Decide on Organization. Write a Draft. Revise and Edit. Prepare the Final Draft. Sample Student Essays.
Glossary.
Biographical Notes.
Chronological List of Writers and Titles.
Acknowledgments.
Index of Authors and Titles.