English 320:  The Short Story
Spring 2004; Lyman Baker, Instructor
 
Course Schedule:
 
Readings, Writing Assignments, and Exams
 
Part 2:  Assignments from Day 7 through Exam 1

Our textbook is Dana Gioia and R. S. Gwynn's The Longman Anthology of Short Fiction:  Stories and Authors in Context (paperback, 2001).  Find out how to get a copy by clicking here.  All page references in the Course Schedule are to this book.  Other readings (required or recommended) are indicated by links, which appear in blue underlined font.

Before printing off a copy of this schedule, be sure to read the pointers about Using the Course Schedule.


9 Feb (M):  No new reading assignment.  We'll use today to catch up with unfinished business from the readings so far.

11 Feb (W):  Have read for discussion Chinua Achebe's "Dead Men's Path" (pp. 46-48), along with the short bio on the author (pp. 41-42), and Achebe's remarks on "Modern Africa as the Crossroads of Culture" (pp. 48-49).

There are two separate Study Guides for this story:  SG1 and SG2.  Pick one of them and read the story in accordance with it.  Two of the options for the in-class essay you'll be writing soon will involve this story.  So you may want to use the other study guide when you review the story in preparation for this assignment.  Meanwhile, add this question to your first reading:  does this story turn on an epiphany?

13 Feb (F):  Have read for discussion Flannery O'Connor's "Revelation" (pp. 1395-1410), along with the short bio on O'Connor (p. 1369).  Here are a couple of questions to consider during your first reading:

(a) What has O'Connor decided upon for the narrative point of view of her story?  What considerations do you figure led her to reject the idea of trying to tell this story through a participant narrator, for example, by having Mrs. Turpin tell the story?

(b) Reflect carefully upon Mrs. Turpin's thoughts in the doctor's waiting room from her recall of the gospel song line up through her nightmare about the boxcars heading for a gas oven.  How are these important in characterizing Mrs. Turpin?  What sort of a person is she?  What are her leading traits, and how do you arrive at these from a consideration of her remarks, thoughts, and actions?

(c) What qualifies as the climactic moment of the first half of the story?  How does this moment affect the second half of the story?

16 Feb (M):  We'll continue discussion of O'Connor's story, so so another reading of "Revelation."  This time focus on the extended epiphany that is the climax of the story (the last 3 pages of the story) in front of the pig parlor. 

(a) How many distinct phases of progressive enlightenment would you divide the extended revelation into that follows Mrs. Turpin's outraged question:  "Who do you think you are?"

(b) Exactly what revelations do you figure are conveyed to Mrs. Turpin, and to the reader, by each?

18 Feb (W):  Have read for discussion Yukio Mishima's story "Patriotism" (pp. 1263-80), together with the biographical sketch of Mishima (pp. 1262-63).

20 Feb (F):  Clearly Mishima's story is one in which our ability to imagine our way into the story's cultural setting is essential if we are to "come to terms with" the author.  We need not endorse the beliefs and actions of the protagonists, but we need to be able to take on their perspective in our imagination in order to construct the experience the story is designed to make possible for its readers.  What key assumptions can you detect on the part of the lieutenant and his wife that a modern American reader would have to "suspend disbelief" in in order understand the attitudes towards what happens that the story invites us to adopt?

23 Feb (M):  Today in class you will write a short essay.  (You'll have about 20 minutes for this.)  To prepare for this, consult the Prep Sheet for In-class Essay 1.

25 Feb (W):  (1) Have read for discussion Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" (pp. 1471-1474), along with the biographical sketch of Poe (pp. 1444-45).

There is a detailed Study Guide to this story.  Be sure to make use of it.

(2) Linked to on the Study Guide is an article in our online glossary of critical concepts on the Participant Narrator (aka "First-Person" Narrator).  Be sure you get on top of the matters discussed there.  (This will be worth reviewing several times before the end of the course.)

27 Feb (F):  (1) Further discussion of Poe's story.

(2) Since the narrator of this story is driven by forces within himself of which he himself is not aware, this would be a good time to get acquainted with the article on Psychological Repression in our online glossary of critical concepts. 

1 Mar (M):  (2) Have read for discussion Eudora Welty's story "Why I Live at the P.O."

(2) Work through the article on our online glossary of critical concepts on the distinction between "point of view in [or of] a story" and "point of view of a person" (or of a fictional character).

3 Mar (W):  Have read Ring Lardner's story "Haircut." 

This is not a story in our textbook.  If you were in class on Monday, you'll have received a copy as a handout (though in rather small print). 

If you were absent on Monday, you can print off a copy from our website.  (Students who are frustrated with squinting to read the copy they received in class will find that printing out a copy of the document on our website will make the text easier to read.)

Here are two questions to keep in mind as you read the story. 

(a) Here we have marginal participant narration.  (See how?)  What is the situation of the narrator?  What key information do we have about the person to whom he is speaking?  What are his intentions in telling his listener what he does?  (Imagining yourself to be the person who's being spoken to, does the narrator achieve his purposes with you, in the end?)

(b) What is your assessment of the character (the personality) of the narrator?  What are the key traits that stand out for you in reaching your assessment?

5 Mar (F):  Have read Alice Walker's story "Everyday Use" (p. 1671f. in our text).

There are two separate Study Guides for this story on our website here:  SG1 and SG2.  Pick one of these and use it to guide your reading and rereading of the story.  Later you will be writing an out-of-class essay on this story.  You may want to use the other study guide when you review the story in preparation for that essay. 

 Don't forget to read, too, the biographical sketch of the author, on p. 1670.

Meanwhile, here are two sets of questions to keep in mind as you read the story.  You've seen them before, and they come up in both study guides.  What do you turn up when you press them with Walker's story? (Be prepared to say something on this in class Friday.)

(a) Here we have participant narration.  But would you classify it as central, or marginal partipant narration?  (What's a good way to decide which character it's best to take as the protagonist of the story?)  What is the situation of the narrator?  What key information do we have about the person to whom he is speaking?  What are his intentions in telling his listener what he does?  (Imagining yourself to be the person who's being spoken to, does the narrator achieve his purposes with you, in the end?)

(b) What is your assessment of the character (the personality) of the narrator?  What are the key traits that stand out for you in reaching your assessment?

8 Mar (M):   Have read T. Coraghessan Boyle's story "Greasy Lake" (p. 191-98), along with the author bio on p. 190.

Remember to be pressing the initiating questions we've been stressing in class, about narrative point of view, about plot, about whether the protagonist undergoes some key change in the course of the story.  And here's a new one:  does the story involve one or more important epiphany?

10 Mar (W):  Further discussion of Boyle's story.

12 Mar (F):  Have read for discussion Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" (pp. 269-279), along with the biographical sketch of the author (p. 268-69).

15 Mar (M):  (1) Further discussion of Carver's "Cathedral."  We'll focus on the epiphantic moment at the story's climax.

(2) Work your way through the article on Epiphany in our online glossary of critical concepts.

17 Mar (W):   9:30 section:   reread Raymond Carver's "Cathedral."
    10:30 section:  reread T. Coraghessan Boyle's story "Greasy Lake."

Pick a medium-sized paragraph and rehearse saying it aloud.  Imagine you are making an audio tape for a great-aunt who used to be an avid reader, and who is eager to get acquainted with a story that you have recently read, but who has gone blind.  Your job is to pretend you are the character who is telling the story.  In doing this, you don't want to rush the pace.  And you want to capture the natural rhythm and tone of voice of the individual personality of the person whom you imagine the narrator to be "now" -- i.e., as he is telling the story about what happened back then, when he was a different person whom he is viewing from the perspective of the present.

In class, we'll ask several people to present their rendition of the paragraph they've chosen. 

After we've heard your performance, we'll ask the you to

19 Mar (F)(1) Read the short essay by Oliver Sacks handed out in class on Wednesday:  "The President's Speech."  If you weren't in class on Wednesday, you can print off a copy from our website.  Use this reading to get clear on what we mean by "tone" in speech.

(2) Have done your first reading of Ralph Ellison's story "A Party Down at the Square" (pp. 583-87), along with the biographical sketch of Ellison (p. 582).  Practice reading the last two paragraphs of the story aloud, trying to get the "feeling tone," rhythm and cadence right for the voice of the person who's telling the story.

Once again, we have a central participant narrator.  How much understanding has he reached about the events he tells about, between the time they happened and the time in which he is telling us the story of them?  How much insight does he exhibit into himself, in his telling of the story?

22 Mar (M):  No class -- Spring Break.
24 Mar (W):  No class -- Spring Break.
26 Mar (F):  No class -- Spring Break.

29 Mar (M):  (1) Have read for discussion Jamaica Kincaid's story "Girl" (p. 996-97), along with the biographical sketch of Kincaid. This is an excellent opportunity to practice performing the "voice" of the story.

(2) You should also have given a second reading to Ellison's story.

31 Mar (W):  (1) Out-of-class Essay 1, due Wednesday, 31 March 2004:  Be sure to consult the detailed instructions for this assignment.  These cover the topic, the format, the criteria by which you should critically read the working drafts you produce on the way to your final draft, resources to consult, and the deadline for submission.

(2) In class:  We'll discuss further Ellison's "A Party Down at the Square" and take up Jamaica Kincaid's  "Girl."

2 Apr (F):  Have read for discussion Katherine Anne Porter's "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall."  

You'll want to read this in conjunction with the Study Guide to the story.  (You are not expected to do the writing assignment linked to from this guide, but you might find it interesting to have a look at it.)

5 Apr (M):  (1) We'll continue our discussion of Porter's story.  Be sure to read it again carefully.  This time be looking for ways in which the course of Granny's thoughts shows her defending against disturbing memories and prospects.

(2) Before you begin your rereading of "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall," work your way through the article on Psychological Repression in our online glossary of critical concepts.

(3) You may also want to look at the short description our editors give (in their glossary) of "stream of consciousness narration" (p. 1923), and of "interior monologue" (p. 1917).  (In the present case, we are confronted with occasional passages of both.  Why does Porter choose this mode of presentation?)

(4) After you've reread the story once, work through the article on Responsibility in our online glossary of critical concepts.

7 Apr (W):  We'll entertain questions about the up-coming exam.  If you'd like, we can practice writing one or more questions in class.  (For this discussion to be fruitful, you'll need to come to class having already studied the prep sheets for the exam.  See the entry for Friday, 9 April, below.)

9 Apr (F):  Exam 1 will take place today.  See the prep sheet for what to expect and tips on how to prepare for this.  (Note:  The link just given points to the "general prep sheet" for the exam.  On it there is a link to a more detailed prep sheet, which you want to be sure to check out.)


    Return to the Course Home Page (English 320:  The Short Story).
    Go to Course Schedule 3 for the assignments beginning with 12 April 05.

  Suggestions are welcome.  Please send your comments to lyman@ksu.edu .

   Contents copyright © 2004 by Lyman A. Baker.

Permission is granted for non-commercial educational use; all other rights reserved.

  This page last updated 04 April 2004 .