English 320:  The Short Story
Spring 2002; Lyman Baker, Instructor
 
Course Schedule:
Readings, Writing Assignments, and Exams
 
Part 3:  Reading assignments to be covered on the Final Exam 
(i.e., 2 assignments before Mid-Term and all those following the Mid-Term)

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.

For all these stories -- unless you are directed to a particular study guide -- you should practice reading according to the instructions in the General Study Guide.

24 Mar (M):  (1) Read our editors' introduction to Philip Roth (p. 1493).

(2) Read Roth's "The Conversion of the Jews" (p. 1494).

5 Feb (W):  (1) Read our editors' introduction to Tobias Wolff (p. 1721).

(2) Read Wolff's "In the Garden of the North American Martyrs" (p. 1722).

(3) Review the glossary article on  "Classifying Plots in Terms of Character Development" .  What type of plot are we confronted with in Wolff's story?  How about in Roth's?  

28 Mar (F):  Mid-Term Exam

31 Mar (M):  (1) Read our editors' introduction to John Barth (p. 138).

(2) Read Barth's "Night-Sea Journey" (p 138).

(3) Review the story in the light of these questions:

  1. What do we take to be the identity of the speaker?
  2. What turns out to be the "secret hope" he alludes to in the opening paragraph?  (Cf. the second sentence of the next-to-last paragraph:  what is the "direst blasphemy" he refers to here, and what did he hope it would cause to happen?  Why did he hope this?
  3. What is the speaker's ultimate, as it were desperate consolation hope? (Cf. the rest of the next-to-last paragraph.)
  4. Do you think John Barth himself shares this resolution?
  5. What does the night-sea journey stand for?
  6. How do all the apparently contradictory theories posed by the speaker's friend ironically turn out to be true?
  7. Is the protagonist here best appreciated as "static" or as "dynamic"?  (Could you explain your answer?)

2 Apr (W):  (1) Read our editors' introduction to Arthur C. Clarke (p. 435)

(2) Clarke's "The Nine Billion Names of God" (p 436).

(3) Read Archibald MacLeish's poem "Apocalypse."  (handed out in class).  How does this poem imagine an ironic twist on traditional Christian ways of imagining the apocalypse?

(4) Clarke's story turns importantly upon a foil relationship between the mentality (assumptions and purposes) of the Americans and the mentality of the Tibetans.  How does this contrast shape what you take to be the parabolic meaning of this story?

(5) Are there any characters in this story that qualify as "round"?

4 Apr (F):  (1) Have a look at our editors' introduction to Jorge Luis Borges (p. 170).  What is the main idea you derive from it about what to expect in his story that follows?

(2) Read Borges's "The Library of Babel" (p. 172).  How would you characterize the narrative point of view of this story?  Where does the story's rising action begin?  Where does the dénouement begin?  What premises does Borges' thought experiment here share with the story you've just read by Clarke?

(3) Is the narrator/protagonist here a flat character or a round character?  Could you explain your answer?

7 Apr (M):  (1) Read Borges's "The Garden of Forking Paths" (p. 177).

(2) There is a detailed Study Guide to this story.  You should read the story in the light of it (3 readings).

(3) Is the narrator/protagonist here a flat character or a round character?  Could you explain your answer?

9 Apr (W):  (1) Read what our editors have to say about Shirley Jackson (p.864)

(2) Read Jackson's story "The Lottery" (p. 865).

(3) There is a "Writing Assignment" on this story that you should look at after your first reading of the story.  You are not to hand in anything on this assignment, but should use it to stimulate your thinking during your subsequent readings of the story.

11 Apr (F):  (1) Get acquainted with what our editors have to say about Ursula K. LeGuin (p. 1069).  Notice that her parents were both anthropologists.  Her story might be thought of as a kind of "social-science fiction."  What issues is she using this thought-experiment to raise for her readers about the real society they find themselves in?

(2) Read LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (p. 1070).

(3) There is a detailed Study Guide to this story that you should exploit.

(4) There is also a "Writing Assignment" you might want to consult afterwards, which contains some additional suggestions about lines along which the story might invite us to think.  (You are not being given this assignment to do here.)

(5) Recommended also:  Noam Chomsky's 1985 talk "Vietnam and Central America:  Some Parallels and Differences" (handed out in class).

14 Apr (M):  (1) Get acquainted with the career of Thomas M. Disch via our editors' introduction (p. 533).

(2) Read Disch's "The Man Who Read a Book" (p. 534).  (But first:  what are the questions you're going to be pressing even in your first reading?)

(3) Reread the story in the light of Disch's remarks on "Science Fiction, Youth Culture, and the Future" (p. 543).

(4) Is the protagonist of this story round or essentially flat?  Is he static -- or dynamic?  How are the decisions Disch has made in these respects suited for what you take the overall tone and purpose of his story to be?  (For "tone," see what our editors have to say on pp. 1876-1877.)

16 Apr (W):   (1) Read about Ray Bradbury's career in our editors' introduction (p. 199).

(2) Then read Bradbury's "The Veldt" (p. 200).  

(3) Notice when the story was written.  What was going on in American culture during the period in which this story was written?  How has the story been prophetic, if we take it figuratively (i.e., symbolically)?  What is it inviting its readers to reflect upon?

(4) Recall again the glossary article on  "Classifying Plots in Terms of Character Development" .  What type of plot are we confronted with in Disch's story?  How about in Bradbury's?  

18 Apr (F):  (1) Get acquainted with the writer Fred Chappell via our editors' introduction (p. 360).

(2) Read Chappell's "Ancestors" (p. 361).

(3) What do we notice about the mentality of Harry and Lydie?  What are we invited to think of them, in the light of this?  What do you think Chappell might be using this thought experiment to get us to reflect upon?  What are some of the ways in which our own reflections on the ancestors are more profound than those of their modern hosts?

  1. What are some issues that are raised by the conduct of Lieutenant Aldershot?
  2. What are we invited to take stock of in the episode of Private Harper?
  3. What is Chappell getting on the table through his characterization of Wade Wordmore?
  4. What are we to make of the ending of the story?

21 Apr (M):  (1) Get acquainted with the career of Franz Kafka (p. 952).

(2) Read Kafka's "A Hunger Artist" (p. 954).

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

23 Apr (W):  (1) Check out our editors' introduction to the work of Margaret Atwood (p. 89).

(2) Read Atwood's "Happy Endings" (p. 90).

25 Apr (F):  This will be a "catch-up" day.

28 Apr (M): (1) Read our editors' introduction to Nathaniel Hawthorne (p. 791).

(2) Read Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" (p. 792).

(3) There is a Study Guide to this story that is a bit different from the sorts of study guides you've encountered so far.  This one is only recommended (not required), but you might find it interesting to try out.

30 Apr (W):  Continued discussion of Hawthorne's story.

To thicken your sense of the historical texture of this coming-of-age story, have a look at the following two items:

2 May (F):  (1) Get acquainted with the life of Flannery O'Connor (p. 1369).

(2) Read O'Connor's "Good Country People" (p. 1370).

(3) Here are some questions that you'd eventually be led to via the standard agenda of curiosity embodied in our General Study Guide:

  1. What is comically irritating about Mrs. Hopewell?
  2. What is comically grotesque about Mrs. Freeman?
  3. Hulga (like Dee/"Wangeroo" in "Everyday Use") has renamed herself.  What are Hulga's motives in doing this, and what are we to think about her in the light of this?
  4. Hulga is in for quite a shock in the story's climax.  It's easy to see what her illusions are about the Bible salesman.  But what are 

(4) Afterwards, i.e., over the weekend, have a look at Robert H. Brinkmeyer Jr.'s essay "Flanery O'Connor and Her Readers" (p. 1825).

5 May (M):  (1) Read O'Connor's "Revelation" (p. 1395).

(2) Mrs. Turpin undergoes two shocking experiences.  What is the effect on her of each of these?  Pay special attention to the one that follows her challenge to God, and the line "She opened her mouth, but no sound came out of it."  What distinct phases can you detect, from the next paragraph to the end of the story?  What is the effect on Mrs. Turpin at each stage?

7 May (W):  (1) Read about Nikolai Gogol (p. 747).

(2) Read Gogol's famous story "The Overcoat" (p. 748).

(3) For more on the place of this story in the history of the short story, see p. 1845.

9 May (F):  To wind up, let's look at 3 short short stories.  (Be sure to take in the editors' introduction to the authors, preceding each story.)

(1) Feng Jicai, "The Street-Sweeping Show" (p. 636).

(2) Lu Xun, "A Little Incident" (p. 1128).

(3) Jamaica Kincaid, "Girl" (p. 996).

(4) Franz Kafka, "Before the Law" (p. 953).

10 Mar (M):  Final Term Examination.  Be sure you have studied the Prep Sheet.

Students in both sections may attend either of the two final exam sessions scheduled for Baker's sections of the course.  (Both will take place in our regularly-scheduled classroom -- Eisenhower 012.)  The dates and times are:

    Return to the Course Schedule 1, for assignments for the first couple of weeks. 
    Go to Course Schedule 2, for assignments up to the Mid-Term Exam.

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

   Contents copyright © 2003 by Lyman A. Baker.

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

  This page last updated 11 May 2003.