1、The genesis of the short story: A. Oral story-telling tradition: The short story has always existed as an informal oral traditionB. Developed and became popular in the nineteenth century: a staple of the prevailing magazine and periodical market. During this period, fiction was channeled in the dire
2、ction of realism or a detailed representation of everyday life, typically the lived and experiences familiar to middle-class individuals. Besides its realistic impulse, the modern short story differs from the ancient forms of short fiction in still another way: in the ratio between summary and scene
3、.C. The 20th century: the golden ageD. Britain: first started the form: Walter Scott, then lagged behindE. Prevailed in France, Russia, America, representative writersF. List 3 famous writers: Two Great Traditions in the Short Story: A. Guy De Maupassant (1850-1893): event-plot story: beginning-midd
4、le-and-end plot is considered one of the fathers of the modern short story. He delighted in clever plotting. Taking his cue from Balzac, Maupassant wrote comfortably in both the high-realistic and fantastic modes. (W. Somerset Maugham, OHenry). B. Anton Chekhov (1860-1904): Chekhovian story: Impress
5、ionistic technique, plotless/formless, mood, constructs a story without episodic interest ( Katherine Mansfield: plagiaristically Chekhovian, Raymond Carver Ernest Hemingway)Seven Basic Varieties of the Short Story:The event-plot story, the Chekhovian story, the modernist story, the cryptic/ludic st
6、ory: suppressed narrative, the mini-novel story, the poetic/mythic story, the biographical story.The event-plot story: The events of the story are often meant to illustrate something about human nature, or to deliver a message which is related to day-to-day experience, the meaning of life or human v
7、alue. Theme is an important element in the stories that offers insight into human natures. Sometimes the theme is expressed directly in a story. Most of the time, however, the theme must be inferred from other elements in the story.Not every story can be said to have a theme. For example, mysteries
8、and adventures stories are told mainly for entertainment, and there is generally little or no significance in them.Chekhovian story: Impressionistic technique, plotless/formless, mood, constructs a story without episodic interest.The structure element of short story: Plot，Characterization，Theme ，Poi
9、nt of view ，Tone.Characterization:The way a writer presents a character in a story is known as characterization. A writer may tell you directly what a character is like. He may make direct comments revealing what he thinks about his character. It is more common, however, for a writer to develop a ch
10、aracter indirectly. The writer allows you to draw your own conclusions about a character by describing the characters physical appearance; showing the characters actions revealing the characters thoughts; showing how the character is treated by others. A writer may, of course, use both direct theref
11、ore, we must be alert for the possibility of an unreliable narrator. The narrator speaking as “I” has the advantages of adding immediacy to a story. But such point of view also has limitation. The reader sees the events from the vantage point of only one character. The character can reveal his own t
12、houghts but cant get into the minds of other characters.B. The third-person point of view: A story can be told from the third-person point of view, by an observer who does not play a role in the events. The third-person narrator may be an omniscient, or all-knowing, observer, who knows what all the
13、characters can see, hear, think, and feel, and who comments on the action and interprets the events. (e.g. Vanity Fair) However, The narrator may enter the mind of only one character.The toneA. Irony: Irony involves a difference or contrast between appearance and reality- that is a discrepancy betwe
14、en what appears to be true and what really is true. Irony reminds us that life is unpredictable and that what we expect to happen or wish to have happened does not always have the intended result. Irony can make us smile or wince. It can be genial or bitter.1) Irony of situation (in which there is a
15、 contrast between what is expected to happen and 2) what actually happens, e.g. shooting the goat instead of the tiger in Sakis story.)3) Dramatic irony (in which the reader knows something that a character in the story does not know.)4) Verbal irony (in which a character says one thing and means so
16、mething. entirely different. ( “Its perfect fairness is obvious” ”The institution is a very popular one”.)B. Satire: Sometimes a humorous story mocks or ridicules certain weakness, follies, or vices in human nature and society through irony, derision, or wit. A literary work that pokes fun at some f
17、ailing of human behavior is called satire. Satire is generally of two kinds: it can be gentle, amusing, and lighthearted, or it can be biting, bitter, even savage.Minimalism Minimalism describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is stripped
18、 down to its most fundamental features. Literary minimalism is characterized by an economy with words and a focus on surface description. Minimalist authors eschew adverbs and prefer allowing context to dictate meaning. Readers are expected to take an active role in the creation of a story, to “choo
19、se sides“ based on oblique hints and innuendo, rather than reacting to directions from the author. The characters in minimalist stories and novels tend to be unexceptional; they may be pool supply salespeople or second tier athletic coaches rather than famous detectives or the fabulously wealthy. Ge
20、nerally, the short stories are “slice of life“ stories. Minimalist fiction present significant details arranged in a way that causes the brain to supply missing informationto extend the lines, so to speak. As a result we perceive information that makes the point, develops character, reveals the them
21、e, and justifies the voice. Understated, elliptical, truncated, opaque, and dense.Epiphany: The term used in Christian theology for a manifestation of Gods presence in the world. It was taken over by James Joyce to denote secular revelation in the everyday world. A sudden, intuitive perception of or
22、 insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience. Joyce sees the epiphany as a crucial building-block of fiction. It is the moment at which a character understands that the illusions under which he or she h
23、as been operating are false and misleading.The traditional plot-line：Exposition (setting) ，Rising action (conflicts)，Climax，Falling action，Resolution (denouement).Epiphany Plot: In modern fiction, the most common alternative to the conflict-plot is the epiphany-plot, that is actions are directed tow
24、ard an epiphanyan intuition of truth revealed at or near the end of a story. In an epiphany-plot, the protagonist is relatively passive, acted upon rather than forcing events by his own will. Something happens to him, and as a result we are led to an insight either about him or about life in general
25、. Epiphany-oriented stories are often about seemingly trivial incidents. The scenes or episodes become meaningful when they are tied together by the moment of knowledge, a moment which ultimately serves as the theme of a story.Chekhovian moodThe mood created when seemingly unrelated details, monolog
26、ues, characters remarks form a unifying atmosphere, the existential basis of human life. The Chekhovian mood is that cave in which are kept all the unseen and hardly palpable treasures of Chekhovs soul, so often beyond the reach of mere consciousness. (Refer to Woolfs “The Russian Point of View”: p5
27、 “On the other hand, the method among the Russians themselves.”)3 stage of Chekhovs writing:He wrote stories while going into medical practice, from which he gained a wealth of knowledge that would later become evident in his fiction These early works, generally looked upon as the first major period
28、 of Chekhovs writing (18801887), did, however, display many Chekhovian narrative permutations in the short story genre: laconic introductions, impressionistic characterization through importance of detail, interior action, and surprise endings.From 1888 to 1893 Chekhov was profoundly influenced by T
29、olstoys ethics concerning morality, nonresistance to evil, and altruism; and this began the second epoch of Chekhovs fiction in which he experimented with lyricism and thematic contrasts: beauty, sensitivity, and life as opposed to hideousness, banality, and death. Later he rejected Tolstoyanism as
30、an insufficient response to human suffering. Yet Chekhov continues in this letter to shrewdly criticize Tolstoy for the “too theological” Resurrection, only just published.This spiritual upheaval brought about Chekhovs third creative era during which he produced his most complex and unique short sto
31、ries and dramas. The journey produced in Chekhov a concern for social issues such as the injustice, corruption, and violence of Russian society.Even though Chekhov has been viewed as an utter pessimist, largely due to his realistic portrayal of Russian society during an era of imminent revolution, h
32、is personally expressed view was one of uneasy optimism with regard to social progress and scientific advancement. Chekhovs literary artistry, combined with his medical knowledge and insight into human textures, resulted in short stories that have altered the narrative standards for an entire litera
33、ry form.Eugene Gladstone ONeills achievement an American playwright, and Nobel laureate in literature (1936). Pulitzer Prizes for four of his plays: Beyond the Horizon (1920); Anna Christie (1922); Strange Interlude (1928); and Long Days Journey Into Night (1957). ONeill is credited with raising Ame
34、rican dramatic theater from its narrow origins to an art form respected around the world. He is regarded as Americas premier playwright. His plays are among the first to introduce into American drama the techniques of realism, associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright He
35、nrik Ibsen, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg. His plays were among the first to include speeches in American vernacular. His plays involve characters who inhabit the fringes of society, engaging in depraved behavior, where they struggle to maintain their hopes and aspirations but ultimately
36、slide into disillusionment and despair. ONeill wrote only one well-known comedy (Ah, Wilderness!). Nearly all of his other plays involve some degree of tragedy and personal pessimism. He was also part of the modern movement to revive the classical heroic mask from ancient Greek theatre and Japanese
37、Noh theatre in some of his plays.Career as a Playwright: Three Periods His early realist plays utilize his own experiences, especially as a seaman. In the 1920s he rejected realism in an effort to capture on the stage the forces behind human life. His expressionistic plays during this period were in
38、fluenced by the ideas of philosopher Freidrich Nietzsche, psychologists Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, and Swedish playwright August Strindberg. During his final period ONeill returned to realism. These later works, which most critics consider his best, depend on his life experiences for their story l
39、ines and themes.PlayAs literary genre, drama has affinities with fiction, poetry, and the essay. Like fiction, drama possesses a narrative dimension: a play often narrates a story in the form of plot. Like fiction, drama relies on dialogue and description, which takes the form of stage direction, li
40、nes describing characters, scenes, or actions with clues to production. Unlike fiction, however, in which a narrative often mediates between us and the story, there is no such authorial presence in drama. Instead, we hear the words of the characters directly.To gain the appreciation of the uniquely
41、theatrical idiom of drama, we should read drama with special attention to its performance elements. We can try to hear the voices of characters, and imagine tones and inflections. We can try to see mentally how characters look, where they stand in relation to one another, how they move and gesture.
42、We can read, in short, as armchair directors and as aspiring actors and actresses considering the physical and practical realties of performance. Types of DramaTragedy and comedy have been represented traditionally by contrasting masks, one sorrowful, the other joyful. Its often less important to de
43、cide whether a play is predominantly comic or tragic, romantic or satiric, than to acknowledge its mixture of modes and to respond fully to the characters or situations it dramatizes. Some twentieth-century dramatists have found that tragicomedy is more suitable for representing a complex, uncertain
44、, and often irrational world than either tragedy or comedy alone. Elements of Drama Plot: Plot is the structure of a plays action. Although it encompasses what happens in a play, plot is more than the sum of its incidents. Plot is the order of the incidents, their arrangement and form. Following Ari
45、stotle, we can distinguish between all the little actions or incidents that make up a play and the single action that unifies them. It is this unified structure of incidents (or little actions) Aristotle calls action and we call plot. Traditional plot structure consists of an exposition, presentatio
46、n of background information necessary for the development of the plot; rising action, a set of conflicts and crises; climax, the plays most decisive crisis; falling action, a follow-up that moves toward the plays resolution or denouement (French for the untying of a knot). Character: If plot is the
47、skeletal framework of a play, character is its vital centre. Characters bring plays to life. First and last we become absorbed in the characters: how they look and what their appearance tells us about them; what they say and what their manner of saying expresses; what they do and how their actions r
48、eveal who they are and what they represent. We may come to know them and respond to them in ways we come to know and respond to actual people, all the while realizing that characters are literary imitations of human beings. Drama lives in the encounter of characters, for its action is interaction. I
49、ts essence is human relationships, the things men and women say and do to each other. Dramatic characters come together and affect each other, making things happen by coming into conflict. It is in conflict that characters reveal themselves and advance the plot. Dialogue: Ezra Pound, the modern American poet, once described drama as “persons moving about on a stage using words”in short, people talking. Listening to their talk we hear identifiable, individual voices. In their presence we encounter persons, for dialogue inevitably brings us back t
