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(English 320: The Short Story). Here
are some important things to keep in mind in using the
course schedule.
Reminders of key times & dates:
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8 Oct (M): Mid-term exam.
10 Oct (W): (1) Review our editors' remarks on "What Is the Plot?" (pp. 20-21), "How Point of View Shapes a Story" (pp. 75), "How Character Creates Action" (pp.107-108), and "How Time and Place Set a Story" (pp. 152-53). (2) Read Amy Tan's story "A Pair of Tickets" (pp. 136-151), making a special effort to bring to bear on it from the outset the various curiosities the editors are recommending in those sections. (3) Read the biographical sketch of the author (pp. 136-137) and Tan's own remarks on "Setting the Voice" (pp. 151-152). (4) Re-read Tan's story in light of these, and of the editors' questions on p. 152.
12 Oct (F): (1) Read our editors' remarks on the subject of tone and style137-141. (2) Then work through Ernest Hemingway's story "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" (pp. 141-44). (3) Re-read the story in the light of the editors' questions (p. 145) and Hemingway's remarks (p. 172) on "the direct style." (4) Sometime in your re-reading of this story, ask yourself where we find verbal irony at work.
15 Oct (M): (1) Read William Faulkner's story "Barn Burning" (pp. 145-157). (2) Stylistically this is a very challenging story, so it is something you will want to re-visit several times between now and the final exam. The editors' questions (p. 158) are good ones to attend to after your first reading. (Remember, they are using this story, and Hemingway's quite different one, to call attention to style and tone) (3) Don't forget to bring to bear upon it, sometime during these re-readings, the agenda of curiosity outlined in the General Study Guide. (That is: don't forget that it's not just tone and style that deserve our attention here!) (4) Sometime in your re-reading of this story, ask yourself where we find verbal irony at work. (5) There is also a Study Guide focused specifically on this story. Eventually you will want to consult it (especially if you are considering writing your Essay #2 on it).
17 Oct (W): (1) Read our editors' discussion of different varieties of irony (p. 158-59). (3) Then read Guy de Maupassant's story "The Necklace" (pp. 160-166). (3) Before you re-read the story: Which of our editors' first 3 questions on this story (p. 166) express curiosities about character? Which draw our attention to matters of plot? How do the last two questions relate to these interests, with which we are already familiar?
19 Oct (W): No class: Student Holiday.
22 Oct (M): (1) Read the article (in our on-line glossary of critical concepts) on dramatic irony. (2) Read Jorge Luis Borges' story "The Gospel According to Mark" (pp. 167-171). (3) Read the editors' parting remarks on the subjects of style and tone, "Be Style Conscious" (pp. 173-74).
24 Oct (W): (1) Work through our editors' observations on the subject of "theme" (pp. 175-177). (2) Read Stephen Crane's story "The Open Boat" (pp. 178-196).
26 Oct (F): (1) Review the editors' questions on the stories by Hemingway, Faulkner, and Borges (pp. 145, 158, 171). (2) Which elements in our General Study Guide might have given rise to the various questions our editors have posed here?
29 Oct (M): (1) Re-visit the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Good Seed (both of which we read in the first week or so of the course). (2) Work through our glossary article on the concept of allegory. How would the meaning of the one and of the other be quite different if we were to divorce them from their Biblical context (e.g., if we knew nothing of the particular explications the teller gives in the Gospel according to Mark), and to treat them as illustrative examples of something. (What might such such situations be examples of?) (3) Read the parable that the Prophet Nathan tells to King David. What transformations has Nathan made in "translating" David's situation into the story he tells him? What do you figure his motives might be for presenting this story instead of simply recounting to the King the literal facts of his situation?
31 Oct (W): Read Nathaniel Hawthorne's story "The Minister's Black Veil." This story is not in our anthology, but you can acquire a copy of it from any number of sites on the web (some of which are worth bookmarking, as they offer whole collections of literary works). Here are some: 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 (terrible choice of font and background color, though it will print OK) or 6 (only one entry of many for NH on this site) or 7. (If after your initial reading of the story you're interested in taking a quiz over this story, you can find one here.)
2 Nov (F): Work through the analysis of how the central symbol in "The Minister's Black Veil" takes on its meanings from the more comprehensive allegorical context in which it is embedded.
5 Nov (M): No reading assignment for today, as you are preparing your Essay #2. Over the weekend, you should have worked up a draft of your essay. In class we will take up your questions bearing on this assignment, with a view to enabling you to revise what you have into a superior final draft. Deadline for submission of Essay #2 is midnight tonight. The topic options and guidelines for this requirement are available here.
7 Nov (W): (1) Read Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" (pp. 196-206 in our anthology). (2) There is a Study Guide focused specifically on this story. (3) Can you see what led the editors to formulate the questions they present on pp. 206-07?
9 Nov (F): (1) Read Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s story "Harrison Bergeron" (pp. 208--13). (2) What assumptions were the editors working from if their reading of this story led them to be curious about the issues they raise in their questions on p. 213?) (3) In the excerpt from an interview with Vonnegut that appears on PP. 214-15 we find no mention of the story "Harrison Bergeron.." But what connections clues do you find there to the authorial concerns that may have found expression in that story? How, exactly, do they show up there? (4) Work through our editors' parting words on the subject of theme (p. 215).
Vonnegut's story and the next several (those by Steinbeck, Jackson, LeGuin) are good opportunities for those of you who need to be doing more in the way of message board discussion to do some catching up. Remember: there's nothing wrong with a reply to a reply to a reply! (This is after all is known as a "conversation.") For a reminder on how important message board discussion is for the final grade in this course, consult the memo on Grades.
12 Nov (M): (1) Work through our editors' introductory remarks on the topic of "symbols" (pp. 217-219). (2) Then read John Steinbeck's story "The Chrysanthemums." (pp. 219-227). (3) In your re-reading of the story, do you find helpful the editor's specific questions on p. 228? (3) There's a sample student paper on this story on pp. 243-245. Do you think there is more to say, or something that deserves rejoinder there?
14 Nov (W): (1) Read Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery" (pp. 229-235). (2) The editors' questions (p. 235) are good ones. How do #s 1-5 lay the ground for #6? What are some emphasized details in the story that don't seem to be accounted for by any of the interpretations offered there? What is it in the story that causes them to receive the emphasis you detect?
16 Nov (F): There is on our site a writing assignment on Jackson's story that you are not expected to come up with an essay upon, but which raises some important issues worth taking up on the message board, some of which might turn up on the Final Exam. Treat this writing assignment rather as a study guide: work through it, giving the story a fresh reading before or afterwards, and see if you can develop a reasoned position on the issues raised there, which you could take to the message board for discussion.
19 Nov (M): (1) Read Ursula K. LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" (pp. 236-240). (2) Reread it in light of the editors' questions on p. 240. (3) In her remarks on this story (pp. 241-242), with whom does LeGuin seem more sympathetic -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky or William James? What reasons can you detect for this preference? Does knowing this influence our sense of what might be the theme of "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas"?
21 Nov (W): No class: Student holiday.
23 Nov (F): No class: Student holiday.
26 Nov (M): The narrative strategy in LeGuin's story is different from anything we've encountered so far. It's worth giving the story at least another couple of readings to focus on this aspect alone. Work through the Study Guide focused specifically on this story. (At the end of this study guide there is a link to a writing assignment on the story. This you are not expected to take up, but you may find it useful to look at the topics cooked up there. Can you see how the story itself invites us to be curious along these lines?)
28 Nov (W): (1) Read James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues" (pp. 272-273). (2) What is the climax of this story if we take the protagonist to be Sonny? (3) What is the multiple reference of the concept in the story's title?
30 Nov (F): (1) Re-read Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues." (2) What is the climax of this story if we take the protagonist to be the narrator?
3 Dec (M): (1) Read Frank O'Connor's "First Confession" (pp. 619). (1) What differences do you detect between the boy whose experience the narrator shows us and the man who is the narrator? How is the tone of the narration a crucial clue to this difference? (What is the boy's attitude towards what happens to him? What is the narrator's attitude towards this?) What do you figure accounts for this difference? Does the kind of man the priest shows himself to be perhaps have a role in this, in the long run? What is important about the priest's subtle use of verbal irony in speaking to the boy?
5 Dec (W): (1) Read James Thurber's "The Catbird Seat" (pp. 632-638). (2) Does this story depend for its effect on our appreciation of any plot ironies? (*) The prep sheet for the Final Exam will be posted by noon today (Central US Time).
7 Dec (F): There is no new reading for today. You should be re-reading stories and jumping into the discussions on the class Message Board. Class will be devoted to reviewing for the Final Exam. Bring your questions for discussion.
Week of 10 Dec - 14 Dec: The Final Examination will cover only the works assigned since the Mid-Term, but, you will be expected to show a mastery of critical concepts covered throughout the course. A detailed idea of what both parts will cover is provided in the prep sheet for the Final Exam, which you will find posted to the web by noon (Central US Time) on Wednesday of Dead Week (i.e., on 5 Dec).
I will post detailed information on when and where by the same date.
Return to the Course Home Page
(English 320: The Short Story).
Return to Course Schedule 1, for
earlier assignments covered by the Mid-Term Exam.
Return to Course Schedule 2, for
later assignments covered by the Mid-Term Exam.
Suggestions are welcome.
Please send your comments to lyman@ksu.edu
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Contents copyright © 2000 by Lyman A.
Baker.
Permission is granted for non-commercial educational use; all other rights reserved.
This page last updated 06 September 2001.