Short stories offer readers the unique opportunity to experience a powerful piece of literature in a deceptively small package. The constraints of a few thousand words can give the best works an economy of storytelling that distills the power of the written word in astonishing ways. The brevity of short fiction belies its emotional and intellectual complexity.
Author(s): Jennifer Cognard-Black
Series: The Great Courses
Publisher: The Teaching Company
Year: 2019-09
Language: English
Pages: 193
Professor Biography......Page 3
Dedication......Page 8
Course Scope......Page 9
Lecture 1—“Come In Here”: How Stories Draw Us In......Page 13
The Opening Line......Page 14
The Four Ps......Page 15
First Line Examples......Page 16
Lecture 2—Discovering the American Short Story......Page 19
Trouble in the Mind......Page 20
Empathy......Page 21
The American Short Story......Page 22
The Connecting Element......Page 24
Lecture 3—The Storytelling Instinct in America......Page 25
Written Pieces and Oral Tales......Page 26
A Transformation......Page 27
Defining a Genre......Page 28
Story Circles......Page 29
Lecture 4—Storytelling and American Mythos......Page 32
The American Voice......Page 33
A New American Genre......Page 34
Mythos......Page 35
“Rip Van Winkle” as a Hero’s Journey......Page 36
The Purpose of “Rip Van Winkle”......Page 38
Lecture 5—Sentimental Fiction and Social Reform......Page 40
Harriet Beecher Stowe......Page 41
Women Writers......Page 42
“The Seamstress”......Page 43
Materiality and Feeling......Page 44
Lecture 6—The Rise of Realism in American Fiction......Page 46
The Champions of Realism......Page 47
A Literary Boy’s Club......Page 48
A Flexible Category......Page 49
Jack London......Page 50
Lecture 7—American Modernists......Page 54
“Barn Burning”......Page 55
Faulkner versus Hawthorne......Page 56
The Modernist Voice......Page 57
Gertrude Stein......Page 58
Other Modernist Voices......Page 59
Lecture 8—Contemporary American Storytelling......Page 62
The Iceberg Principle......Page 63
“The Snows of Kilimanjaro”......Page 64
Hemingway’s Influence: “A Worn Path”......Page 65
Hemingway’s Influence: “Lou”......Page 66
Lecture 9—Setting or Donnée in American Short Fiction......Page 68
Indoor and Outdoor Examples of Données......Page 69
Donnée and the World......Page 71
The Donnée’s Influence......Page 72
Lecture 10—The Use of Detail in American Short Fiction......Page 76
A Deluge of Details......Page 77
The Purpose of the Detail Deluge......Page 78
Details in “Recitatif”......Page 79
Lecture 11—Character: Who You Are in the Dark......Page 82
“A Temporary Matter”......Page 83
Feelings, Actions, and Thoughts......Page 85
Three Fiction-Writing Errors......Page 86
Lecture 12—American Dialogue and Interior Monologue......Page 89
Making It Real......Page 91
Interior Monologue......Page 94
Lecture 13—Standing Apart: The Third Person......Page 97
The Advantages of the Third Person......Page 98
The Limited Third Person......Page 99
The Objective Third Person......Page 100
The Omniscient Third Person......Page 103
Lecture 14—Standing Close: The First and Second Person......Page 108
The Autobiography......Page 109
Pitfalls of the First Person......Page 110
The Second Person......Page 112
Conclusion......Page 114
Lecture 15—Plot: What Characters Do Next......Page 115
Mimesis and Epiphanies......Page 116
The Parts of the Epiphanic Plot Structure......Page 117
“A Good Man Is Hard to Find”......Page 119
Lecture 16—Imagery in American Short Fiction......Page 122
Imagery in “Gasoline”......Page 123
Figurative Language......Page 124
Clichéd Imagery......Page 128
Lecture 17—Style in Traditional American Short Stories......Page 129
Hemingway versus Faulkner......Page 130
Hemingway on Hunting......Page 132
Conclusion......Page 134
Lecture 18—Experimental American Short Stories......Page 136
Deconstruction......Page 137
Breakdown of “The School”......Page 138
Breakdown of “The Cheater’s Guide to Love”......Page 139
Literature in Flux......Page 141
Lecture 19—Genre Short Fiction in America......Page 143
“The Tell-Tale Heart”......Page 144
“August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains”......Page 146
“She Unnames Them”......Page 148
Lecture 20—Graphic Short Fiction in America......Page 150
The Black Panther Series......Page 151
“Body Language”......Page 152
“Blink,” Part 1......Page 154
“Blink,” Part 2......Page 155
Lecture 21—Postmodern Short Fiction in America......Page 158
“Bullet in the Brain”......Page 159
“Captivity”......Page 160
“The Hit Man”......Page 161
Example 1: “Brushes”......Page 165
“The Mirror” and “Lonely Twentysomething Tries Tinder”......Page 166
Lecture 23—Short Story Endings......Page 170
The Ending of “The House of Usher”......Page 171
The Ending of “Life in the Iron Mills”......Page 172
The Ending of “Bernice Bobs Her Hair”......Page 173
The Ending of “The Man Who Was Almost a Man”......Page 174
Lecture 24—A Hundred False Starts......Page 177
The Short Story Publishing World......Page 178
Bibliography......Page 181
