teaching stories

[nazife]

Hello,
I work at the ELT department of Cyprus International University. At the moment I study on the preparation of a course book for short story analysis and teaching. I appreciate all kinds of contributions on the choice of stories, their interpretations and the methodology. This is my first entry. I hope you will welcome me into your circle.
Nazife

[Sessrin]

have you thought about using "The Yellow Wallpaper" or "The Lottery"
The Yellow Wallpaper-with a woman who is confined to her room. the wallpaper shows her insanity or the way she feels about the condition of her life

The Lottery- traditions that today seem immoralistic, but were readily accepted

sorry, if i'm not to open or am wrong, I have not read these stories in a couple of years

[Shannanigan]

I read "The Lottery" in 10th grade, and yeah, that was good stuff.

I read a lot of short story collections on my own at that age, and the teacher let us bring our favorites in to photocopy and look at.

[Ranoo]

D.H. Lawrence's The Rocking-Horse Winner .You can apply psychoanalytic approach on it .

The story has to do with Oedipus complex, the abnormal love to mother by a son,though I don't go along with that idea ,yet it is a good story to discuss and show both Lawrence's way of thinking and Freud theory .


Hawthrone's Young Goodman Brown.

You can discuss with the students something about American history especially regarding Puritanism and Witch craft.

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Poe

It can be classified under stories about psychology ,for the man in the story wants to kill someone just because of his eyes ,whom he does not like. Also it is a horror story .

[Shannanigan]

I read the rocking-horse winner, that was also good. I like The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allen Poe, in all honesty, for school purposes. A Rose for Emily was a little confusing for me, but perhaps that was the teacher's lack of focus in going over it :) I personally did a paper on "Swimming Lessons" by Rohinton Mistry recently and found it absolutely stunning, though a little long. Still, Mistry's short stories are pretty good.

[lavendar1]

Hi Nazife --

I think there are several ways to teach the short story. One of the most common (and alot of college texts are set up this way) is to 'break out' the components of fiction, ie, plot, characters, point of view, setting, 'voice' (or literary style), theme, etc, and then choose representative short stories to illustrate each. For example, when it comes to point of view, you might choose either the Shirley Jackson story, The Lottery, that's already been mentioned, or perhaps something like one of my favorites, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, by Ambrose Bierce. When it comes to characters, you can't go wrong in choosing something by Ray Carver, like Cathedral or Hemingway's Cat in the Rain, or Susan Glaspell's A Jury of Her Peers. For theme, I might try a tried-and-true Chekhov story, like Lady With (Lap) Dog, or D.H. Lawrence's The Horse Dealer's Daughter. When it comes to style, I love Frank O'Connor's First Confession, or maybe any of Hemingway's Nick Adams stories.

I've also seen universities take a particular writer's stories, and focus on those, rather than the 'survey' approach I outlined above.

Can you tell I love short stories? I could go on and on, but I'd better quit. It's such a versatile, enduring form, and I think a much easier one for students to use for identifying and learning the components of fiction -- and all this knowledge gained can then be transferred to 'bigger' fiction -- the novel. Plus, the discussion with more easily "handled" literature (hey, it's short!) is always wonderful. Written analysis, too, is more spontaneous and the various approaches to writing about literature can be taught more easily.

Also, by teaching the components of plot with short stories, students are better prepared to write their own fiction...but then, I suppose that's another course!

[byquist]

The Ransom of Red Chief - O'Henry

[muhsin]

You 're welcome. I wished I had some help to offer,I swear I would have had contributed.

I hope other members will help.

Best wishes.

[Verbatim]

The Most Dangerous Game-

read it in college, and i still like the psyshological approach to the hunter-hunted relationship.

[aeroport]

They do The Most Dangerous Game in college? I think we did it freshman year in high school - but yeah, it's a good one, to be sure.
I agree with the Poe, Lawrence, Faulkner, and Hawthorne suggestions here. These are selections I think most of us had to read in high school, and are all excellent for literary discussion.
Additionally, I would recommend Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants and Chopin's Story of an Hour. Both of these are really short, but they both - especially the former - are practically bursting at the seams with allusion. Well, I guess the Chopin's more straightforward really, but the Hemingway has all kinds of fun ambigities to play with.

[genoveva]

I appreciate all kinds of contributions on the choice of stories, their interpretations and the methodology.

Dover Thrift Editions has some pretty good collections of short stories for a very reasonable price- like $3 and under for an anthology!

[Redzeppelin]

"The Lottery" (Shirley Jackson) also a great example of the archetype of the scapegoat. Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" is a great study in the objective point-of-view and of making dialogue communicate. As well, his "Clean, Well Lighted Place" is a wonderful study of characterization through dialogue (as well as pointing to existentialist philosohphy). Flannery O'Connor's story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is also a great example of characterization. Someone mentioned Poe's "Cask of Amontillado" which is an excellent study in irony. Anything by Hawthorn is good because he's so good at ambiguity in his stories. Vonegut's (spelling?) "Harrison Bergeron" is a masterful example of satire.