teaching the language of short stories dr. husniah sahamid facullty of educational studies...
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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.
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