FAMOUS SHORT STORY WRITERS

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FAMOUS SHORT STORY WRITERS
A presentation for Student Support Services
participants Troy University Troy, AL 36082
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WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES

• Provide students with a general overview of a few
  short story writers who have greatly influenced
  literary culture.
• Encourage students to develop an appreciation for
  literacy and literature.
• Encourage students to think critically about the
  various themes that writers address in their
  creative works.

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Short Story . . . What is it?

• Tells about a single event or experience
• Fictional (not true)
• 500 to 15,000 words in length
• Has a beginning, middle, and end
• Creates an impression on the reader
• Prose (Written in sentence and paragraph form,
  not in verse)

Slide Source http//www.worldofteaching.com/powe
rpoints/english/how20to20write20a20short20sto
ry.ppt257,2,Definition of a Short Story
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Great Short Story Writers

• . . . are able to use the elements of the
  short story with such precision that the reader
  is caught up in the action activity or message
  of the story.

Source http//www.worldofteaching.com/powerpoint
s/english/how20to20write20a20short20story.ppt
263,10,Short Story Vocabulary
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Elements of a Short Story

• Setting
• Figurative Language / Tone/ Style
• Characterization
• Plot Elements
• Point of view / Narration
• Theme

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Memorable Short Story Writers often focus on
Themes

• Theme The storys main ideas. The message the
  writer intends to communicate by telling the
  story.
• Slide Source http//www.worldofteaching.com/powe
  rpoints/english/how20to20write20a20short20sto
  ry.ppt263,10,Short Story Vocabulary

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Ambition Jealousy
Beauty Loneliness
Betrayal Love
Courage Loyalty
Duty/honor (filial piety) Perseverance
Fear Prejudice
Freedom Suffering
Happiness Truth
Key terms in some common Literary Themes

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FAMOUS SHORT STORY WRITERS THE THEMES THEY
COMMONLY APPLY
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AESOP (6th Century B.C.)

• Legendary Greek source of over 600 fables
  including The Tortoise and the Hare, written from
  the oral, have been translated into English by
  many . . .
• Example The North Wind and the Sun

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Some AESOPs Common THEMES Stories

• Slow but steady wins the race. -- The Hare and
  the Tortoise
• Birds of a feather flock together. -- The Farmer
  and the Stork
• Look before you leap. -- The Fox and the Goat
• Misfortune tests the sincerity of friends. -- The
  Bear and the Two Travelers
• Those who suffer most cry out the least. -- The
  Oxen and the Axle-Trees
• Why use animals to teach about human character?
  
• Perhaps Aesop intended to indicate that people
  often do not see their own inhumanity or inhumane
  behaviors nor can they see that sometimes they
  behave as subordinant species and not as ones
  with the aptitude / rational ability to walk as
  the dominant species in the earth.

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Aesops Fable

• The North Wind and the Sun
• The Wind and the Sun were disputing which was
  the stronger. Suddenly they saw a traveller
  coming down the road, and the Sun said "I see a
  way to decide our dispute. Whichever of us can
  cause that traveller to take off his cloak shall
  be regarded as the stronger. You begin."
• So the Sun retired behind a cloud, and the Wind
  began to blow as hard as it could upon the
  traveller. But the harder he blew the more
  closely did the traveller wrap his cloak round
  him, till at last the Wind had to give up in
  despair. Then the Sun came out and shone in all
  his glory upon the traveller, who soon found it
  too hot to walk with his cloak on.
• Moral/Theme Kindness effects more than severity
  or Gentle persuasion works better than
  aggressive force. Power of Rhetoric (general
  subject)
• View video adaptation of this fable by clicking
  here YouTube - Aesop's Fables The Sun and The
  Wind or go to http//www.youtube.com/watch?vC7LT
  G-fy-mcfeaturerelated
• (2 min)

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Jakob Grimm (1785-1863)Wilhelm Grimm
(1786-1859)Grimm Brothers (1785/1786)

• Fairy Tales (Translated German oral tales)
• Rapunzel
• Godfather Death
• Hansel and Gretel
• Little Red Riding Hood
• Rumpelstiltskin
• Cinderella
• Goldilocks

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Grimms Fairy Tales

• Some Themes
• -- Material poverty can lead to spiritual poverty
  in some humans.
• -- Greed can lead to a poverty.
• -- Entitlement leads to death.
• -- Death does not discriminate.
• -- Failure to exercise wisdom leads to disaster.
• -- Failure to live an ordered life leads to
  danger and disaster.
• -- Love conquers evil.
• -- Love can be blinded by greed.
• -- Mans mistreatment toward fellow man is a
  tendency.
• -- Abuse of others (women, elderly, children, the
  poor) is a sign of misplaced or corrupt Western
  values.
• -- Western ideals of beauty have corrupted many
  minds.

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Grimms Fairy Tale

• See Goldilocks video atYouTube - grimms fairy
  tale classics at http//www.youtube.com/watch?vmS
  3nN6PH96Y (530 min)

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Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

• Credited as the Originator of the Modern Short
  Story and recognized for his promotion of the
  Gothic style.
• The Tell-tale Heart
• Fall of the House of Usher
• The Pit and the Pendulum
• Sources http//www.authorstream.com/Presentation/
  Grattan-25475-short-story-intro-shortstoryintro-ed
  ucation-ppt-powerpoint/
• http//www.online-literature.com/poe/

Poes psychologically thrilling tales examining
the depths of the human psyche earned him much
fame during his lifetime and after his death.
He was also an exceptional poet who wrote
Annabel Lee and The Raven.
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Poes Tendencies Themes

• Dying and death were part of Poes life.
• Common Themes
• (a) Death and Violence are directly or
  indirectly part of human life.
• (b) Immortality can be both a human desire and
  source of torment
• (Tell-tale Heart).
• (c) Love is closely linked with death
  (especially when love is denied).
• (d) Mental illness is part of the human psyche
  that makes life unlovely.
• He is said to have transmogrified death in his
  works. (Change into something strange, odd,
  grotesque)
• He used the style of Gothic fiction with a sense
  of the uncanny.
• (Gothic fiction is a form of Medieval romance
  with an undertone of mystery/darkness/fear/superna
  turalism. Setting/architecture is very important
  to creating a gothic tale full of drama and
  suspense. Very edgy (ledges and shadows and
  looming overhanging) features mark gothic
  architecture.)
• His tales were called grotesque, arabesque, and
  terrifying, with recurring themes of being buried
  alive and coming back from the grave.
• Source http//www.dcmp.org/guides/3236.pdf and
  http//www.wisegeek.com/what-characterizes-gothic-
  fiction.htm

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Edgar Allan Poe

• View The Fall of the House of Usher video
  adaptation at YouTube - The Fall of the House of
  Usher-Vincent Price-Edgar Allan Poe at
  http//www.youtube.com/watch?vx1fS6GGm_-Afeature
  PlayListp62C272E44E91AC81playnext1playnext_f
  romPLindex1

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Herman Melville (1819-1891)

• Short Stories
• Benito Cereno
• Bartleby the Scrivener
• Billy Budd
• He also wrote the masterpiece novel Moby Dick.
• To listen to an audio recording of Bartleby the
  Scrivener, go to http//www.archive.org/details/b
  artleby_scrivener_1107_librivox or click on the
  following Internet Archive Details Bartleby
  the Scrivener

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Herman Melville

• Wrote about life as a sea of turbulence and
  adventure.
• Wrote about the presence of justice and injustice
  in the world
• Wrote about the flawed and unjust character
  revealed in humans.
• Wrote about the rhetorical power of passive
  resistance and civil disobedience.

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Kate Chopin (1850-1904)
Kate Chopin . . . an American author of short
stories and novels, is often viewed as an early
feminist writer. She also wrote about identify
and race in culture.
Images yahoo.com
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Kate Chopins Stories

• Desirees Baby (racism, passing, and
  interracial marriage, French Creole culture)
• Story of an Hour (frustrations of women/wives
  in early America)
• Famous Novella The Awakening

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Kate Chopin

• Listen to Story of an Hour (track 17) at
  Internet Archive Details Kate Chopin The
  Storm, The Story of an Hour, and Other Stories or
  go to http//www.archive.org/details/KateChopin_S
  electShortStories

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Flannery OConnor (1925-1964)
http//vulpeslibris.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/ss
11.jpg
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Flannery OConnor

• Short Stories
• A Good Man is Hard to Find (story collection
  title also)
• The Lame Shall Enter First
• Everything That Rises Must Converge (short story
  collection title)

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Flannery OConnor Foci/Themes

• Focused on the language people used in
  communities.
• Focused on the conflict between peoples
  behaviors and their religious values or knowledge
  of right and wrong.
• Focused on The power of self-image and
  self-deception.
• One Theme The more people know, the worse they
  behave.

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Raymond Carver
Images yahoo.com
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Raymond Carver (1938-1988)

• Possibly his most famous collection of short
  stories is Cathedrals, which is also the name of
  one of the most notable short stories in the
  collection by the same title.
• Another famous Carver short story is A Small
  Good Thing. Watch video adaptation at the
  following link http//www.youtube.com/watch?vbt
  gU6mcmzYMfeaturerelated
• YouTube - A Small Good Thing - Adapted From
  Raymond Carver Short
• Carvers Common Themes
• -- Average Americans contend with economic and
  social struggles to hold their ground.
• -- Humor (laughter) is a survival tool.
• -- Work is a drudgery to human life.

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Some Other Famous Short Story/ Short Fiction
Writers

• Nathanial Hawthorne (Young Goodman Brown
• Alice Walker (Everyday Use)
• Toni Cade Bambara (Gorilla My Love)
• William Faulkner (Barn Burning A Rose for
  Emily)
• Charlotte Perkins Gillman (The Yellow
  Wallpaper)
• Ernest Hemingway (The Secret Life of Walter
  Mitty)
• Alice Munro
• Joyce Carol Oates
• Katherine Ann Porter
• Zora Neale Hurston
• Tim OBrien
• Doris Lessing
• Eudora Welty
• Chinua Achebe
• Jorge Luis Borges

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THE END

• Please complete the academic seminar evaluation
  form to receive your workshop credit.
• Return form to SSS staff in 109 Shackelford Hall
  Annex.
• Thank you for your participation.
• Rebecca Money, SPR 2009