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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