The One and the Many : The Short Story and the Short Story Composite

Transcription

1 The One and the Many : The Short Story and the Short Story Composite Prof. Mercedes Peñalba University of Salamanca mpg@usal.es 3 credits The divine art is the story. In the beginning was the story the story only has authority to answer that cry of heart of its characters, that one cry of heart of each of them: Who am I? Isak Dinesen I no longer feel attracted to the well-made novel I want to write the story that will zero in and give you intense, but not connected moments of experience. I guess that s the way I see life. People remake themselves bit by bit and do things they don t understand. The novel has to have a coherence which I don t see anymore in the lives around me. Alice Munro Whatever a story is, however it behaves, the important thing is what it reveals. It s a magnifying glass for examining the techniques of impressionism, say, or the assumptions of postmodernism, or the social data caught in its prism. Famously associated with submerged populations and the lonely voice of the individual, the short story is the window on marginalized identities The story is viewed as a cultural diorama. Susan Lohafer Course description and objectives This course is designed to introduce students to the complexities and pleasures of a genre that has experienced great proliferation since 1900, the short story composite (alternately termed short story cycle, short story sequence, etc.). The short story composite consists of a series of discrete, juxtaposed short stories unified by aesthetic strategies used to render the fragmentation and subjectivity of the modern experience. Though each individual story of a composite can be understood in isolation, the stories reveal an overarching design when seen as co-ordinate parts of a unified whole. This relationship between part and whole has profound implications for the short story composite, since it foregrounds an inherent tension between the simultaneous independence and interdependence of its constituent stories, between unity (closure) and multiplicity (open form), fusion and fragmentation, that distinguish this mode of writing. Although the genre is only just beginning to receive significant critical attention, it has a long history. We can trace its roots back to classical antiquity, with origins in such frame tales as The Thousand and One Arabian Nights, which derive from ancient oral cultures, or the medieval frame-tale collections by Boccaccio (The Decameron) and Chaucer (The Canterbury Tales), which antedate the concept of the novel developed in the eighteenth century. Its twentieth-century origins can be traced to regional and local color stories in Europe and America that captured a sense of place and articulated a community narrative, tenuously linked by recurrent patterns or characters. Emerging from the nineteenth-century loosely jointed collection, the short story composite gained prominence among other literary forms at the turn of the century, in consonance with 1

2 pervasive modes of modernist expression that made possible the memorable works by Stein, Cather, Kafka, Wharton, Woolf, Joyce, Anderson, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald. In the last half of the twentieth century, the form accounts for some of the best work of John Updike, Raymond Carver, Joyce Carol Oates, Tim O Brien, Louise Erdrich, Alice Munro, and Robert Olen Butler, to name a few. While the course will chiefly be concerned with a poetics of the short story composite, it will also focus on the cultural uses of the form to articulate the concerns of the one and the many in a multicultural society such as the United States (the genre also forms an extensive literary archive in Canada, Australia and Latin America). The syllabus texts represent more advanced stages in the development of the short story composite, as each exploits the fragmentation and lack of cohesion of the genre (the inherent tension between the one and the many ) in order to analyse the complex interaction between the individual and the community, and depict the opposite impulses in any society towards unity and diversity or integration and alienation. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will have achieved the following objectives: Become familiar with the works of major practitioners in the field of short story composites in the United States. Sharpen critical faculties with regard to the analysis and appreciation of the short story and the short story composite. Discuss central aspects of contemporary short fiction theory. Acquire a larger critical vocabulary for the study of selected composites. Analyse the distinctive features of the short story composite, the collection of stories and the multi-faceted / segmented novel. Deepen their understanding of American short story composites while exploring related literary and cultural issues. Develop an awareness of the specificity of the genre of the short story and the short story composite and their importance in American literary culture. Explore the role of the short story in the contemporary world of book- and magazine-publishing and culture in relation to national and ethnic identities. Examine the relationship between short story composites and visual arts (such as painting or cinema). Strengthen their reading and writing skills through instruction in literary and cultural analysis, using these in tandem with both guided and independent research. Provide multiple opportunities to improve skills of presentation, oratory and argument. Refine cooperative learning strategies and become independent critics of texts (written and visual). Course structure This course will trace the development of the short story composite in American literature, asking several central questions. What is a short story composite? Is it a legitimate genre or a hybrid form subordinated to the novel? What are the distinctive features of the story composite in relation to the novel and the short story collection? 2

3 What directions have composites been taking in recent years? Since the course aims to provide a literary context for this form, it will trace its development in the United States through the examination of short story composites by representative authors that have used this mode of writing to explore notions of identity, history and place. The aim of each seminar will be to discuss the literary value of these works, particularly in relation to ideas about group-, gender- and national identity. The course will culminate in student-led presentations on a range of contemporary American short story composites that articulate the fractured narratives of community and trauma, based on their individual research on works outside the class corpus. Course Communication [ Information for this course and lecture material will be uploaded to the course web site in advance of each class meeting. There students will find updates to this syllabus, electronic copies of selected readings, writing assignments, and regular announcements. They are responsible for printing and reviewing this material before coming to class. Learning and Teaching methods Teacher and student-led presentations. Discussion sessions. Collaborative small group and seminar work. Web-based assignments. Individual project: analytical research paper. Course requirements and assessment Evaluation will be based on effective class discussion, interpretation and critical analyses of texts, class presentations, a fully documented research paper/project, and homework assignments. A selection of short story composites will, however, be specified at the beginning of the course for class discussion on designated dates. Texts will be read alongside relevant literary and cultural theory, although emphasis will be placed on the poetics of the form. The course grade will be determined on the basis of these four components: Regular attendance, participation, seminar preparation and class discussion. The class will proceed mostly through discussion, and hence participation (which assumes attendance) will affect the students final grade. They are expected to read all required texts and come to class prepared to discuss the assigned material. Individual oral presentation. Each student will present a critical and personal reflection on a short story composite related to their research paper. They will be judged on the quality of their works as well as on the delivery of the information. Web-based assignments. These individual assignments will consist of integrative questions, asking the student to critically comment on one or two scholarly articles related to a short story composite. Long essay (or Master s thesis). Students are expected to submit one academic essay of approximately four thousand words on a topic agreed with the tutor, or using the essay titles that will be distributed in class. This analytical paper will 3

4 be graded on content, organisation and style (MLA format). The course assumes a good proficiency in written and oral English. The table below illustrates the final grade distribution: Seminar preparation, class participation, and attendance: 20% Oral presentation: 20% Web-based assignments: 15% Essay (or TFM): 45% In the second year students will proceed to independent research on a topic of their choice and submit a dissertation in close consultation with their supervisor. Selected Bibliography Brown, Julie, and William Cain, eds. Ethnicity and the American Short Story. New York: Garland Pub., 1997., ed. American Women Short Story Writers: A Collection of Critical Essays. New York: Garland Pub., Davis, Rocío G. Transcultural Reinventions: Asian American and Asian Canadian Short Story Cycles. Toronto: TSAR, Dunn, Maggie, and Ann Morris. The Composite Novel: The Short Story Cycle in Transition. New York: Twayne, Gelfant, Blanche H., ed. The Columbia Companion to the Twentieth Century American Short Story. New York: Columbia UP, Gerlach, John. Toward the End: Closure and Structure in the American Short Story. Alabama: U of Alabama P, Hanson, Clare. Short Stories and Short Fictions London: Macmillan, 1985., ed. Re-Reading the Short Story. London: Macmillan, Head, Dominic. The Modernist Short Story. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, Ingram, Forrest L. Representative Short Story Cycles of the Twentieth Century. The Hague: Mouton, Kennedy, J. Gerald, ed. Modern American Short Story Sequences. New York: Cambridge UP, Levy, Andrew. The Culture and Commerce of the American Short Story. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, Lohafer, Susan. Coming to Terms with the Short Story. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, Reading for Storyness: Preclosure Theory, Empirical Poetics, and Culture in the Short Story. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, Lohafer, Susan, and J.E. Clarey, eds. Short Story Theory at a Crossroads. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, Lounsberry, Barbara, et al. The Tales We Tell: Perspectives on the Short Story. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood P,

5 Lundén, Rolf. The United Stories of America. Amsterdam: Rodopi, Luscher, Robert M. The Short Story Sequence: An Open Book. Short Story Theory at a Crossroads. Ed. Jo Ellyn Clarey and Susan Lohafer. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, Mann, Susan Garland. The Short Story Cycle: A Genre Companion & Reference Guide. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood P, May, Charles. The Short Story. The Reality of Artifice. New York: Twayne, 1995., ed. The New Short Story Theories. Athens, OH.: Ohio UP, Nagel, James. The Contemporary American Short-Story Cycle: The Ethnic Resonance of the Genre. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, Websites The Short Story Library American Literature (Short stories listed by title) American Literature on the Web (Alphabetical listing of American authors) Annotated Author Links Bibliomania: Short Stories Online Literary Criticism Collection (Authors in American 20th century literature) The Voice of the Shuttle (Alan Liu's collection of electronic resources for the Humanities) Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide The Online Books Page Finding Sources Documenting Sources MLA Formatting and Style Guide 5