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The Art of the Short Story DANA GIOIA R. S. GWYNN Lamar University SUB Gottingen 217 782 094
7
2005 A 3176
PEARSON
Longman New York Boston San Francisco London Toronto Sydney Tokyo Singapore Madrid Mexico City Munich Paris Cape Town Hong Kong Montreal
CONTENTS
Preface xi About the Authors
Parti
xiii
Introduction
THE ART OF THE SHORT STORY 3
Part 11 Stories
7
CHINUA ACHEBE, Nigerian 9 Dead Men's Path 10 Author's Perspective Achebe: Modern Africa as the Crossroads of Culture
12
American 14 Hands 15 Author's Perspective Anderson: Words Not Plot Give Form to a Short Story
SHERWOOD ANDERSON,
MARGARET ATWOOD, Canadian 21 Happy Endings 22 Author's Perspective Atwood: On the Canadian Identity
24
19
iv
CONTENTS
American 26 Sonny's Blues 27 Author's Perspective Baldwin: Race and the African-American Writer
JAMES BALDWIN,
Argentine 53 The Garden of Forking Paths 55 Author's Perspective Borges: Literature as Experience
49
JORGE LUIS BORGES,
62
ALBERT CAMUS, French, born in Algeria
64
The Guest 65 Author's Perspective Camus: Revolution and Repression in Algeria
74
American 76 Cathedral 77 A Small, Good Thing 88 Author's Perspective Carver: Commonplace but Precise Language
104
RAYMOND CARVER,
American 106 Paul's Case 107 Author's Perspective Cather: Art as the Process of Simplification
WILLACATHER,
JOHN CHEEVER, American
121
122
The Swimmer 123 Author's Perspective Cheever: Why I Write Short Stories
131
Russian 133 \ The Lady with the Pet Dog 135 Misery 147 Author's Perspective Chekhov: Natural Description and "The Center of Gravity"
ANTON CHEKHOV,
American 152 The Storm 153 The Story of an Hour 157 Author's Perspective Chopin: My Writing Method
KATE CHOPIN,
SANDRA ClSNEROS, American
160
Barbie-Q 160 Author's Perspective Cisneros: Bilingual Style
162
159
151
CONTENTS
JOSEPH CONRAD, Polish, Naturalized British
The Secret Sharer 165 Author's Perspective Conrad: The Condition of Art
164
193
American 195 The Open Boat 196 Author's Perspective Crane: The Sinking of the Commodore 213
STEPHEN CRANE,
American 217 A Party Down at the Square 218 Author's Perspective Ellison: Race and Fiction 222
RALPH ELLISON,
American 224 Barn Burning 225 A Rose for Emily 238 Author's Perspective Faulkner: The Human Heart in Conflict with Itself
WILLIAM FAULKNER,
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, American 246 Babylon Revisited 247 Author's Perspective Fitzgerald: On His Own Literary Aims
262
French 264 A Simple Heart 265 Author's Perspective Flaubert: The Labor of Style 286
GUSTAVE FLAUBERT,
Colombian 287 A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings 289 Author's Perspective Garcia Marquez: My Beginnings as a Writer
GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ,
American 296 The Yellow Wallpaper 297 Author's Perspective Gilman: Why I Wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper"
293
CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN,
Russian 310 The Overcoat 311 Author's Perspective Gogol: On Realism 331
NIKOLAI GOGOL,
309
245
vi
CONTENTS
NADINE GORDIMER, South African 333 A Company of Laughing Faces 334 Author's Perspective Gordimer: How the Short Story Differs from the Novel American 347 Young Goodman Brown 348 The Birthmark 357 Author's Perspective Hawthorne: On the Public Failure of His Early Stories
345
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE,
369
American 370 A Clean Well-Lighted Place 372 Author's Perspective Hemingway: One True Sentence 375
ERNEST HEMINGWAY,
ZORA NEALE HURSTON, American 377 Sweat 378 Author's Perspective Hurston: Eatonville When You Look at It
387
American 389 The Lottery 390 Author's Perspective Jackson: The Public Reception of "The Lottery"
SHIRLEY JACKSON,
HENRY JAMES, American, Naturalized British
The Real Thing 400 Author's Perspective James: The Mirror of a Consciousness
399
418
HA JlN, born in China, Resident American 419 Saboteur 420 Author's Perspective Jin: Deciding to Write in English 427 Irish 429 Araby 430 The Dead 434 Author's Perspective Joyce: Epiphanies 464
JAMES JOYCE,
Austm-Hungarian 465 Before the Law 466 The Metamorphosis 467 Author's Perspective Kafka: Discussing The Metamorphosis 500
FRANZ KAFKA,
396
'i
CONTENTS
D. H. LAWRENCE, English 502 Odour of Chrysanthemums 503 The Rocking-Horse Winner 517 Author's Perspective Lawrence: The Novel Is the Bright Book of Life
528
URSULA K. LE GUIN, American 530 The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas 531 Author's Perspective Le Guin: On "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" DORIS LESSING, Rhodesian, Naturalized British
A Woman on a Roof 538 Author's Perspective Lessing: My Beginnings as a Writer
535
537
545
American 547 To Build a Fire 548 Author's Perspective London: Defending the Factuality of "To Build a Fire"
JACK LONDON,
MANSFIELD, New Zealander 561 Miss Brill 562 The Garden-Party 565 Author's Perspective Mansfield: On "The Garden-Party" 575
KATHERINE
American 511 Shiloh 578 Author's Perspective Mason: Minimalist Fiction 588
BOBBIE ANN MASON,
French 590 The Necklace 591 Author's Perspective Maupassant: The Realist Method
GUY DE MAUPASSANT,
597
American 599 Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street Author's Perspective Melville: American Literature 626
HERMAN MELVILLE,
YUKIO MlSHIMA, Japanese 628 Patriotism 629 Author's Perspective Mishima: Physical Courage and Death
646
600
559
viii
CONTENTS
ALICE MUNRO, Canadian 648 How I Met My Husband 649 Author's Perspective Munro: How I Write Short Stories
661
American 663 Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Author's Perspective Oates: Productivity and the Critics 676
JOYCE CAROL OATES,
664
FLANNERY O'CONNOR,
American 611 A Good Man Is Hard to Find 678 Revelation 689 Author's Perspective O'Connor: The Element of Suspense in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" 704 American 101 The Fall of the House of Usher 708 The Tell-Tale Heart 721 Author's Perspective Poe: The Tale and Its Effect 725
EDGAR ALLAN POE,
American 126 Flowering Judas 727 Author's Perspective Porter: Writing "Flowering Judas" 736
KATHERINE ANNE PORTER,
American 738 The Man to Send Rain Clouds 739 Author's Perspective Silko: The Basis of "The Man to Send Rain Clouds"
LESLIE MARMON SILKO,
742
ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER, Yiddish (born in Poland), Naturalized American 744 Gimpel the Fool 745 Author's Perspective Singer: The Character of Gimpel 755 Russian 757 The Death of Ivan Ilych 758 Author's Perspective Tolstoy: The Moral Responsibilities of Art
LEO TOLSTOY,
American 799 Separating 800 Author's Perspective Updike: Why Write? 808
JOHN UPDIKE,
797
CONTENTS
American 809 Everyday Use 810 Author's Perspective Walker: The Black Woman Writer in America
ix
ALICE WALKER,
EUDORAWELTY, American 819 Why I Live at the P.O. 820 Author's Perspective Welty: The Plot of the Short Story
829
EDITH WHARTON, American 831 Roman Fever 832 Author's Perspective Wharton: The Subject of Short Stories English 843 A Haunted House 844 Author's Perspective Woolf: Women and Fiction
816
841
VIRGINIA WOOLF,
845
Part HI Writing
847
THE ELEMENTS OF SHORT FICTION PLOT
849
CHARACTERIZATION POINT OF VIEW SETTING THEME STYLE
849
854
857
859 860 861
WRITING ABOUT FICTION
863
CRITICAL APPROACHES TO LITERATURE 878 FORMALIST CRITICISM
879
• Michael Clark, Light and Darkness in "Sonny's Blues" 880 BIOGRAPHICAL CRITICISM
8 81
Virginia Llewellyn Smith, Chekhov's Attitude to Romantic Love 882 HISTORICAL CRITICISM
884
John King The Argentine Context of Borges's Fantastic Fiction
885
x
CONTENTS
PSYCHOLOGICAL CRITICISM
887
Daniel Hoffman, The Father-Figure in "The Tell-Tale Heart" MYTHOLOGICAL CRITICISM
890
Edmond Volpe, Myth in Faulkner's "Barn Burning" SOCIOLOGICAL CRITICISM
891
892
Daniel P. Watkins, Money and Labor in "The Rocking-Horse Winner" 893 GENDER CRITICISM
895
Juliann Fleenor, Gender and Pathology in "The Yellow Wallpaper" 896 READER-RESPONSE CRITICISM
897
Stanley Fish, An Eskimo "A Rose for Emily" DECONSTRUCTIONIST CRITICISM
899
Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author CULTURAL STUDIES
898 900
901
Mark Bauerlein, What Is Cultural Studies?
902
Part iv Glossary of Literary Terms Acknowledgments
921
Chronological Listing of Authors (inside covers)
905