TEACHING THE LANGUAGE OF SHORT STORIES

DR. HUSNIAH SAHAMIDFacullty of Educational Studies

Universiti Putra Malaysia husniah@putra.upm,edu.my

What can you tell me about the‘Short Story’?

Short story• Short work of fiction• Written in prose• Usually 500- 15,000 words

Five Elements• Plot ?• Setting ?• Character ?• Conflict ?• Theme ?

• What are other typical characteristics of the short story?

Take a guess….

Typically – but NOT always

• Revolves : single incident, plot, setting• Small number of characters• Short period of time

Typical Plot- Structure..BUT ?1. Exposition2. Rising Action3. Climax4. Falling Action/Denouement5. /Resolution

RISING ACTION Plot EXPOSITION Setting Character Introduction

CLIMAXhighest point of conflictturning point – shift in the story

DENOUEMENTuntying of the knot

RESOLUTIONconclusion

• Brevity• Unlike Novel : time to develop • SS may not follow traditional plot structure:

- No exposition- begins in the middle (media res) - abrupt ending

Setting• Time: hour, period/era/time of day• Place/ Location/ Site• Descriptions of landscape, scenery, season

weather, • Sometimes indirect• Infer sense of time/place

Character

• Direct ? examples• Indirect ? Examples

Theme

• central idea of the story • clearly stated through characters /events • can be inferred – close reading• Plot and theme - interwined

Conflict

Struggle/fight between opposing forces:• Individual vs individual(s)• Individual vs society/circumstances• Individual vs self (desires etc)• Individual vs nature• Individual vs technology (?)

• Examples?

• Storytelling part of human nature, discourse

• telling of personal histories – emotions

• Fable, parable, tale • Oral tradition• All cultures

Fable, parable• Simple in structure• elements of short

story

• Aesop's Fables The Frogs Desiring a King

The Frogs were living as happy as could be in a marshy swamp that just suited them; they went splashing about caring for nobody and nobody troubling with them. But some of them thought that this was not right, that they should have a king and a proper constitution, so they determined to send up a petition to Jove to give them what they wanted. "Mighty Jove," they cried, "send unto us a king that will rule over us and keep us in order." Jove laughed at their croaking, and threw down into the swamp a huge Log, which came down - kerplash! - into the swamp.

The Frogs were frightened out of their lives by the commotion made in their midst, and all rushed to the bank to look at the horrible monster; but after a time, seeing that it did not move, one or two of the boldest of them ventured out towards the Log, and even dared to touch it;

still it did not move.

Then the greatest hero of the Frogs jumped upon the Log and commenced dancing up and down upon it, thereupon all the Frogs came and did the same; and for some time the Frogs went about their business every day without taking the slightest

notice of their new King Log lying in their midst.

But this did not suit them, so they sent another petition to Jove, and said to him, "We want a real king; one that will really rule over us." Now this made Jove angry, so he sent among them a big Stork that soon set to work gobbling them all up. Then the Frogs repented when too late.

“Better no rule than cruel rule”

• Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales – poetic form

• Boccaccio's Decameron (1351-1353)

• French translation: The Thousand and One Nights (1704)

• Emerged about mid 19th century

• Why mid 19th century?• What was happening at this time?

• Large literate middle class

• proliferation of literary magazines and journals

• latter 25 years of the 19th century

• created a market demand for short fiction

(stohttp://www.sfu.ca/english/Gillies/engl207/shortsto.htmries between 3,000 - 15,000 words )

• So who wrote and published the first true modern short story?

(Boyd,http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2006/07/ashorthistoryoftheshortstory/)

• Emergence of a large literate audience• Middle class• Life reflected in “faithful mirrors”• Often story of initiation

The Beginning

• Anton Chekov (Russia), • Honore de Balzac ( France), • Guy de Maupassant (France),• Nathaniel Hawthorne & Edgar Allan Poe (?)

(US)

Scenario - Britain

• In Britain• Did not flourished until later• Britain – hardly existed in mid-19th century• Hardy's Wessex Tales (1888) Robert Louis

Stevenson 1880’s

Beginnings

• true beginnings – America• publication of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Twice-

Told Tales in 1837• Edgar Allan Poe – Tales of Mystery and

Imagination : suspense & horror

• Edgar Allan Poe read Hawthorne:

• made the first real analysis

• a narrative that “can be read at one sitting.”

http://www.theshortstory.org.uk/downloads/boyd.pdf

Short? Story • no fixed length• fiction, written in prose,

narrative• wide range of genres and styles

• long short story - Ernest Hemingway's (novella)

• The Old Man and the Sea: 1952

(Wikipedia)

• Rich, concise – brevity• Meaning even in seemingly casual

conversation (Kennedy & Goaia, 1995• Cannot skip parts or miss importance

• Epiphany – moment of insight/revelation

• Awakening

• Self discovery

MODERN SHORT STORY

Charactersitics?- Plot: story with a beginning, middle and end?- Narrator as authority- Character: subjective reality- language: inner, stream of consciousness,

multiple voices

• END of NOTES

Point of View

• Who is telling the story?• First person• Third person• Omniscient

Third person POV:

Narrator relates all action in third person- third person pronouns- "he" or "she.“- Third person, omniscient- Third person POV may be: omniscient or limited.