Introduction to Fiction

Describe:

Setting: How many different settings in this chapter?
multiple settings

Characters:  Charles (the father (lazy, free spirit) and son (controlled, has no character, does what is expected of him, like a robot, needs very specific directions, always used to having his mother tell him what to do), the mother (ambitious, wealthy, dominant?, controlling), the wife, headmaster, the school kids, old doctor, Cure in the

Plot:

Analyze

Interpret

1. Describe Flaubert Chapter
2. Describe Reactions and Explain What Elicited These Reactions
3.  How many levels of reality in this chapter?

What is metafiction? (one to two sentences)  Thad: A piece of fiction in which the author makes the reader think about the elements of fiction used in the short story.  (partial answer).

What are the formal elements of a short story? (list eight: plot, setting, character, style/tone, narrative point of view, theme, story, figurative language)

What is figurative language and how is it used in some of the stories we have read?  (Chopin: a lot, e.g., symbolism (clouds, window)):  similes, metaphors, personification, symbolism, metonymy, allegory.  Thad:  Figurative language is when a writer describes something by comparing it to something else.  Flor: It is a tool that authors use to enrich and embellish their writing.)

What is fiction? (two to three sentences)  (this will not be on the exam)

How do the authors we’ve read during this course utilize the elements of fiction in their work? (Use one element of fiction and discuss it across the stories that we’ve read.)

What similarities do you find amongst the characters that we’ve read about?

How does setting play a role in the interpretation of a story.  Use specific examples from the stories that we’ve read to explain the significance of setting.

What is fiction?  Why and how is it relevant?

How can you use fiction in everyday life?  (we’ll discuss this)

What similarities and differences exist between the Gladman and Chopin short stories that we read?

Ben:  Both leave a lot up to the reader for interpretation.

In “The Story of an Hour,” which scene was the climax? (not on the exam)

Is there a plot in Kincaids short story “Girl.”  Please discuss.

What is the significance of the snake in Hurston’s short story “Sweat”? (high)

Which elements of fiction does Jamaica Kincaid use in “Girl.”

How does your interpretation of “Girl” change if you see it as a monologue versus a dialogue?

What role does setting play in Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”? (not on the exam)

What is Scholes’ definitions of myth and fable and how do they help us to interpret Gladman’s “Proportion Surviving”?

How does the narrative point of view effect/influence a story?  Give two examples.  (high)

What is the difference between plot and story? (this will not be on the exam)

Would setting help a reader understand a character’s dialogue?

Why is dialect important in Hurston’s “Sweat” and in Kincaid’s “Girl”? (medium)

What are some similarities between Delia Jones and Mrs. Mallard?

Please compare the role of the wife in Chopin’s story and in Poe’s “The Oblong Box”.  (this will not be on the exam)

In class today, we wrote a bit about writing about literature:  what we learned from the readings, as well as what questions that were still outstanding.  Professor Rodgers introduced this exercise by talking about her frustration regarding the fact that often more time is spent discussing the technical aspects of writing about literature, e.g., MLA in-text citation formatting guidelines, versus the rhetorical and stylistic issues related to writing about literature, e.g., how to select quotes, how to introduce quotes, etc.

Here are some of the questions:

Re: “Close Reading”:  Should you use this as a model for reading passages or entire stories?

Re: Author Biographies: When can you use them in your interpretations of stories?

For our next class, please do the following three things (I have added one thing to this list, which I forgot to mention in class):

1/ Take a look at the following Writing Resources that I have put together for our course:

Writing About Literature: Three Web Texts

Notes on Close Reading (Professor Kelley)

http://writingcenter.unc.edu/resources/handouts-demos/writing-for-specific-fields/literature-fiction#section-2

http://rwc.hunter.cuny.edu/reading-writing/on-line/writing-about-literature.html

General Writing Resources

Writing About Texts

What Is the MLA?

Professor Rodgers’ Guide to the Purdue OWL

2/ Please read sections 1-5 of Dostoyevsky’s “Notes From the Underground.”  Fydor Dostoyevky’s Notes from the Underground

3/ Print out a copy of Zora Neale Hurston’s short story “Sweat,” which you can access here:

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/introtofictionspring2013/files/2013/03/Hurston.Sweat_.doc

We will continue discussing Poe’s story “The Oblong Box.”  In works like “The Purloined Letter,” it is clear that Poe is investigating issues related to writing and storytelling.  Is he in “The Oblong Box”?  If so, how?  Please think a bit about how this story is itself about the act of storytelling.  Also, think about the plot of this story and consider the multiple definitions of the term “plot.”  Finally, please consider what the oblong box may represent or symbolize.

We are going to spend at least half of our next class discussing issues related to writing about literature.  We will then spend some time discussing what to read next.  Here are a few options:

Wilkie Collins’ The Dream Woman

Fydor Dostoyevky’s Notes from the Underground

Henry James’ The Aspern Papers

Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings”

Kafka, Franz.  “The Metamorphosis”

The Doodle Poll is NOW CLOSED (11:05 am Friday, March 1), and I wanted to thank all of those who voted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Based on the poll, we will be reading Poe’s  “The Oblong Box” next.  Please read that story, which you will find a link to here:  Edgar Allen Poe.  “The Oblong Box” and follow the guidelines for reading and discussing it.

If you’re interested in looking at the other stories, please do:

Alexie, Sherman.  “This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix Arizona”

Guy de Maupassant.  “Moonlight”

Edgar Allen Poe.  “The Oblong Box”

Thanks!

The story is about _______

She does not use the elements of fiction conventionally.

What is going on with the names/terms?

How do we make sense of this?

What does juice symbolize?  People, girls, _____, ______

Apple juice

Questions:

What is the fresh apple crisis?

What is the author talking about?

(What is the message?)  What is the story about?

Could the juice be a metaphor for some type of substance abuse? (money, insatiable appetite, something sexual)

Gladman’s story is about a crisis of “juice.”  It constantly moves from before to after the crisis.  Therefore, as the reader, we are constantly jostled back and forth.  She uses personification of apples and juice to suggest drugs.  Her obsession is almost like she is having withdrawl from the jucice and she needs it. It is as if she is addicted.

Could it be possible that going along with the theme that she is scorned by a lover, is it that she is seeking out cheap sexual thrills to fulfill herself?  (see paragraph six)

Please read Jamaica Kincaid’s short story, “Girl.”  Here is the link:
Kincaid, Jamaica.  “Girl”

On Wednesday, we will be finishing up our discussion of Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour” and beginning our discussion of “Girl.”  Below are a few additional discussion questions that we might talk about in relation to the Chopin.  There is not, however, a written assignment due for our next class.

1. What textual clues exist to suggest that Mrs. Mallard is confined?  Please specify which relate to setting, character, figurative language, plot, etc.

2. Looking at Chopin’s/the narrator’s use of figurative language, what do you notice about it?

3.  What do you notice about the tone and style of the story?

4.  What is the dramatic structure of the story?

1. Plot: sequence of events in the story  (event, rising action, climax, denoument)

2. Character:  textual representation of a human being or another actor (animal, ghost, etc.) in the story

3. Setting: environment; time and place where the story takes place

4. Narrative point of view: who is telling the story and from what perspective (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd person limited, 3rd person omniscient)

5. Style, Tone, Language:  Style is the way in which the story is told.  There is a certain tone to the way in which the story is told, or moments in the story.  Diction.

6. Figurative Language/Symbolism and Image:  Figurative Language: hyperbole: exaggeration.  personification: giving inanimate objects human or animal characteristics.  symbolism: things with a  special meaning.  metaphor:  _____________  similes:  use like or as to compare two unlike objects/ideas/things  metonymy: using a part to symbolize a whole.

7. Theme:  Death, Marriage, Sexism, Freedom, Repression (“Story of an Hour”)

8. “Story”:  what the whole thing is about

9. Time:how much time elapses in the story; (chronological time and narrative time)

10.  Storyworld:  the world the story is taking place in; it is a world that you construct in your mind to make sense of the story