Short Story Part II

1. Short Story Part II Modernism & Post-Modernism

2. Early to Mid 20th century • Modernism-time of cultural upheaval, various movements—hopeful, trying to solve or answer the world • 1930s, New Criticism focuses on the form and structure of literature and discourages using sources outside the text as considerations for interpretations. • more attention to formal elements of a text such as plot, setting, character, dialogue, tone, style, and theme • Publishing: The Best American Short Stories, The New Yorker and Story magazines • O Henry, Sherwood Anderson, Flannery O’Connor, Eudora Welty, Katherine Ann Porter, William Faulkner, F.Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway

3. Modernism • Trends in literature in the early 20th century: Symbolism (French poets: Charles Baudelaire), Futurism (Italian Filippo Marinetti), Expressionism (Kafka, or German playwrights Georg Buchner & Bertolt Brecht), Imagism (US & Brit., Ezra Pound), Vorticism (London also Pound & Wyndham Lewis), Ultraismo (Spanish poets Guillermo de Torre), Dada (Paris Andre Breton), Surrealism (Fr/Sp Andre Breton, automatic writing & free association • ( A rejection of 19th c. traditions such as: a rejection of realism, or rejection of traditional metre for free verse • Used different, complex forms and styles including: breaking from chronological storytelling, stream of conscious writing style, fragmentation of images, more abstraction, • A rejection of historical continuity—places value and consciousness in the individual • Objective reasoning was the way to understand the world. • Urban (dissociation) but separate from conventional, middle class, or capitalist values • Multiple points of view, awareness of psychological theories.

4. Mid to Late 20th century • Post-Modernism: what comes after moderism-no point in answering the world, further cynicism, random • Women: Susan Glaspell, Charlotte Gilman Perkins • African American:James Baldwin, Toni Cade Bambara, James McPherson, Ralph Ellison • Native American: Zitkala-Sa, Mourning Dove • John Cheever, Joyce Carol Oates, John Updike • Jewish American: Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, Bernard Malamud • Metafiction: representations of fiction, storytelling, or art in general. • Magical Fiction—use of metaphysical devices: John Barth, Donald Barthelme, and Robert Coover

5. Postmodern 1960s+ • A reaction to and continuation of modernism • a Rejection of any rational order • Abandons traditional literary forms, often combining different genres & styles; an explosion of movements • Nihilism: no reason for values or morality, or rejection of values: believes in nothing, cynical, randomness of existence • Playfulness, parody, & irony

6. Literary Criticism • Reader-Response Criticism • Gender Criticism: Feminist, GLBT • Archetypal, Mythic Criticism • Historical Criticism • Deconstructionist Criticism

7. Flannery O’Connor • Born March 25, 1925. • Father died of Lupus when she was 15. • Georgia College for Women (now Georgia College), became editor of Corinthian, the college's literary magazine • University of Iowa's graduate writing program- Postgraduate teaching assistant at Iowa • Sold her first story “The Geranium,” in 1946. She was 21. • 1948 the Yaddo Foundation, writers' colony NY. • Moved to Connecticut with the Fitzgerald family (literary family) • 1950 moved back home with symptoms of Lupus • Believed lupus a blessing; it forced her to return to her home region and gave her the opportunity to explore the history and character of her region in writing • 1964 died

8. Flannery O’Connor • Combines humor and horror. This strange combination of terror and comedy is known variously as “Southern Gothic” or “the grotesque.” • Influenced by Edgar Allan Poe's Humorous Tales. • A very southern writer • Conveys a mythic quality upon its landscape and its inhabitants • Ever tainted by the sin of Slavery • Yet for O'Connor blacks and whites share a belief in the Christian Bible and shared history of the land

9. Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1860-1935 • Short story writer, novelist • Father was nephew of Harriet Beecher Stowe, but left his family after she was born • 1884 married Charles Stetson • institutionalized due to post-partum depression • Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, whose Philadelphia clinic treated, among other ailments, what was commonly referred to in the nineteenth century as “female hysteria.” Gilman recalled in her autobiography, The Living of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1991), that she was “fed, bathed, rubbed,” and returned to Walter with the following prescription from Weir: Live as domestic a life as possible. Have your child with you all the time…. Lie down an hour after each meal. Have but two hours' intellectual life a day. And never touch pen, brush or pencil as long as you live. • The Yellow Wallpaper 1892 • 1887 divorced Stetson, moved to California • 1890s lectured & wrote on women’s rights • Married George Houghton Gilman 1900

10. Alice Munro 1931- • B. southwestern Ontario & attended UWest. Ontario • M. James Munro 1951 (3 daughters) moved to Victoria, B.C. opened a bookstore; divorced in 1976 • M. Gerald Fremlin live in Clinton, Ont. And Comox, B.C. • Published collections of Short Stories & publishes a lot in The New Yorker. • Stories are known for the emotional depth and complexity of ordinary people’s lives; captures those moments of social embarrassment or discomfort • Focus on female character, mother-daughter relationships • Small town British Columbia or Toronto or rural sw Ontario • Photo-realism in descriptions of place • Has won numerous awards and some stories made into TV movies

11. Margaret Atwood 1939- • Ottawa, Ontario father entomologist (forest insects) • B.A. Victoria College 1961 • A.M. Radcliffe Collge 1962 • Harvard 1962, • Taught U. British Columbia, U. Alberta, York U. • Writer in residence U. Toronto, Macquarie U. Australia, Trinity U Tx U. Alabama, NYU, • Poet, novelist, short fiction, criticism • Numerous awards & honors: Guggenheim Fellowship, Booker Prize, Governor General’s Award, Companion of the Order of Canada, & honorary degrees from 10+ universities • Work: unity of theme, role of mythology, imagery, subliminal mind, integration of rational mind, myth of romantic love, politics

12. Annie Proulx 1935- • B. Connecticut, father textile manufacturer, mother painter, moved around up and down Eastern seaboard, oldest of 5 girls • U Vermont B.A. 1969, M.A. Concordia U. 1973, honorary doctorates U. Maine, U. Toronto, and Concordia • Contemporary • Novelist 6, short stories, non-fiction early on • National Endowment of the Arts grant, Guggenheim Fellowship, National Book Award, & Pulitzer • Middle aged woman from New England • Themes are puzzling, enlightening, depressing, uplifting, violent, compassionate, exotic, commonplace, erotic • Works: psychological effects of social conventions & role of history and environment on everyday life, rural life, disconnection • Married & divorced 3 times w/children

13. Diana Ackerman 1948- • b. Illinois, PhD Cornell U. • D. Lit Kenyon College, Guggenheim Grant • Taught Cornell • The New Yorker, Smithsonian, National Geographic • Poetry, influenced by Hollywood and John Donne, NASA • Combination of opposites, abstract concepts and vivid images • Scientific • Poet, essayist, naturalist • 2 dozen works • A Natural History of the Senses, A Natural History of Love, One Hundred Names for Love, The Zookeeper’s Wife

14. ______- American:exploring Multi-Ethnic Writers

15. African American Literature • The Harlem Renaissance: 1920s a convergence of black writers and artists in NYC • W.E. DuBois’ “The Souls of Black Folks” and Booker T. Washington’s “Up from Slavery” • “A spiritual coming of age of the black race” • Poetry, short stories, plays, research, visual arts, • 1925 The New Negro a collection by Alain Locke prof at Howard U. • 1926 Nation manifesto by Langston Hughes “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” the need for racial pride and artistic independence • Langston Hughes, Arna Bontemps, James Weldon Johnson, Nella Larsen, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston • Themes of African American experience, using folk literature • Crisis, Opportunity, and the Messenger literary magazines • The Great Depression 1929 lack of resources • The WPA Worker’s Progress A… and members worked for the NY Federal Writers’ Project

16. Ralph Ellison 1914-1994 • Sculptor, photographer, actor, essayist, short story, novelist • B. Oklahoma City father solider in Cuba & China; d. when Ralph was 3 yrs. m. Ida Millsap GA—OK construction; great-grandparents were slaves • Decided in childhood to become a “renaissance man:” active in h.s. and college in music, literature, theater, etc. Educated segregated OK • Attended Tuskegee Inst in Alabama • 1936 NYC met Langston Hughes, Arna Bontemps & Richard Wright who encouraged him to write • Taught • Influences: T.S.Eliot, Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain, Herman Melville, • Use of folk tradition • Aim to write to a black audience, not explain the black experience to a white audience

17. Toni Cade Bambara 1939-1955 • Novelist, short stories, essayist, filmmaker, educator • Social commitment is inseparable from the production of art • B. NYC, lived in NJ and south • Attended Apollo theater in 1940s & 1950s • B.A. Queens College in theater arts • Family & youth caseworker in NYC • M.A. American Literature from CCNY • 1961 Metro Hospital NYC psychiatric dept. • 1964 taught City College’s SEEK program • Taught Spelman College, Livingston College, Emory U. Atlanta U., • Civil Rights Activitist & Women’s Rights • Focus on women & images of women’s oppression, critique of stereotypes • 1970s travelled Cuba, Vietnam, etc. • Avoids linear plots, experimental, dialogue

18. Alice Walker 1944- • Poetry, novels, essays, biography, short stories, educator, Pulitzer Prize • B. GA youngest of 8, daughter of sharecropper, blinded by bb gun in right eye: disfigured & alone • 1961 Spelman College, 1963 Sarah Lawrence, travelled to Africa: fell in love, got pregnant, had an abortion, B.A. 1965 moved to NYC • Worked for Welfare dept. • M. Melvyn Roseman Leventhal Jewish civil rights lawyer moved to Jackon, Miss. (illegal) • Jackson S. College, Tougaloo College • Struggles & spiritual development • Complexity of ordinary life, w/ all the change & dishonesty

19. Latin American Literature • Literature from the colonial period mirrored the styles and conventions of the countries of Spain and Portugal (largely outside of the European mainstream). • 17th century poet So Juana Ines de la Cruz, a Catholic nun who was silenced by the Monsignor is representative of the limitations on writers of the colonial period. • 19th century-wars of independence: literature reflected issues of national identity, threat of anarcy and social dissolution. • Jose Joaquin Fernandez de Lizardi of Mexico, Andres Bello of Venezuela & Chile, Jose Hernandez of Argentina, Joaquim Maria Macado de Assis of Brazil • Cuban Revolution 1959 • A term for the many countries and cultures • Emergence in the 1970s • 1980s with stronger immigration—8.9 million immigrants • Immigration and Nationality Act (equal immigration) • 38.8 million (identified) Latinos • Not published b/c belief that Latinos are illiterate. • Neo-colonial issues, follows history of wars of independence in early 19th century • defini

20. Gabriel Garcia Marquez • B. 1928, Aracataca, Colombia • Educated at Liceo Nacional at Zipaquira but did not finish his law degree • Journalist who worked in Europe for the Liberal Colombian newspaper El espectador • A supporter of the Cuban Revolution • Published 1st novel in 1955 • Magical realism-close detail, written realistically but about incredible events • Experimental writer • Writes long epic novels and short stories • One Hundred Years of Solitude 1970, Chronicle of a Death Foretold 1982, Love in the Time of Cholera 1988Strange Pilgrims 1993, Of Love and Other Demons 1995 • Wiliam Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf • Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982

21. Lorna Dee Cervantes • B. 1954 raised in California- Chicano Deals with issues of the bario and blue-collar family life and labor • 1971 Mango Publications for women Chicano writers • A decidedly feminist literary and social activist • Ethnic and gender identity, the personal and the mythic-historical and cultural, neocolonial • Tough, even cynical, strong, personal, humorous, ironic • Emplumada (1981) and From the Cables of Genocide (1991) award winning volumes of poetry • 2 fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts • University of Colorado creative writing program director

22. Jose Armas • B. 1944 • U. New Mexico, U Albuquerque • Publisher critic, community organizer: empowering the disenfranchised and Latinos • Social, education, & political commentary on Latinos • Leader in 1969 Serna vs. Portales case establishing national bilingual education programs • Created diversity training programs • Ghost writer for speeches by Latino political leaders • Est. 1st Chicano publishing houses in the U.S. • NEA fellowship

23. Oscar Casares • B. 1964 Brownsville, Tx • Iowa Writers’ Workshop • Teaches Creative Writing at U Texas & Director of M.A. English program • NEA fellowship, American Library Association Notable Book of 2004 • Amigoland and Brownsville • http://www.oscarcasares.com/index.html

24. Amy Tan • B. 1952 Oakland, CA, Chinese American • Attended high school in Switzerland • San Jose State & Berkeley, B.A., M.A. • Free-lance business writer—Squaw Valley Writer’s Workshop in CA then wrote full-time • Matrilineal narratives (1970s-1980s feminism), generational and cultural differences, gender role issues, marriage, motherhood, work, culture • The Joy Luck Club (1989), The Kitchen-God’s Wife (1991), The Hundred Secret Senses (1995), TheBonesetter’s Daughter (2001), The Opposite of Fate (2003) bio-essays

25. Diana Chang 1934-2009 • Chinese—19th century immigration/detention centers • The Frontiers of Love (1956) autobio novel, • What Matisse is After (1984)