[[*Indicates a new section or selection]] Preface Brief Contents Contents Chronological Listing of Authors and Stories Thematic Index to the Stories and Guide to the Commentaries *Introduction: Why Study Short Fiction? PART ONE: STORIES Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven Sherwood Anderson, Hands Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings *Mary Austin, The Return of Mr. Wills *Isaac Babel, Guy de Maupassant James Baldwin, Sonny's Blues Toni Cade Bambara, The Lesson *Lynda Barry, Two Questions [graphic story] *Donald Barthelme, The School *Alison Bechdel, The Fellowship [graphic story] *Lucia Berlin, My Jockey Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge *Roberto Bolano, The Insufferable Gaucho Jorge Luis Borges, The South Ray Bradbury, August 226: There Will Come Soft Rains *Frederick Busch, Ralph the Duck Alejo Carpentier, Journey to the Seed *Angela Carter, The Company of Wolves Raymond Carver, Cathedral *Raymond Carver, Popular Mechanics Raymond Carver, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Willa Cather, Paul's Case John Cheever, The Swimmer Anton Chekhov, The Darling Anton Chekhov, The Lady with the Dog Kate Chopin, Desiree's Baby Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour Sandra Cisneros, Barbie-Q *Walter Van Tilburg Clark, The Portable Phonograph *Julio Cortazar, A Continuity of Parks Stephen Crane, The Open Boat *Lydia Davis, Pouchet's Wife *Lydia Davis, The Funeral *Lydia Davis,The Mother *Don De Lillo, Human Moments in World War III Junot Diaz, How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie *Anthony Doerr, The Deep Ralph Ellison, Battle Royal Louise Erdrich, The Red Convertible William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily William Faulkner, That Evening Sun *Carolyn Forche, The Colonel Gabriel Garcia Marquez, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown *Bessie Head, Looking for a Rain God Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat Washington Irving, Rip Van Winkle Shirley Jackson, The Lottery Sarah Orne Jewett, A White Heron James Joyce, Araby James Joyce, The Dead *Miranda July, The Swim Team Franz Kafka, A Hunger Artist Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis *Yasunari Kawabata, The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket *Jack Kerouac, October in the Railroad Earth Jamaica Kincaid, Girl Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpretor of Maladies D.H. Lawrence, Odour of Chrysanthemums D.H. Lawrence, The Rocking-Horse Winner Ursula K. Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas Clarice Lispector, The Smallest Woman in the World Jack London, To Build a Fire *Katherine Mansfield, The Garden Party Guy de Maupassant, The Necklace Herman Melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener *Lorrie Moore, How to become a Writer *Alice Munro, Dimensions *Keiji Nakazawa, From Barefoot Gen [graphic fiction] Joyce Carol Oates, The Lady with the Pet Dog Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried Flannery O'Connor, Everything That Rises Must Converge Flannery O'Connor, Good Country People Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find Tillie Olsen, I Stand Here Ironing Cynthia Ozick, The Shawl ZZ Packer, Brownies Grace Paley, A Conversation with My Father Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher William Sydney Porter (O.Henry), The Gift of the Magi *Annie Proulx, The Blood Bay Philip Roth, The Conversion of the Jews Joe Sacco, From Palestine: Refugeeland [graphic story] Marjane Satrapi, From Persepolis: The Veil [graphic story] *George Saunders, Puppy Said Sayrafiezadeh, A Brief Encounter with the Enemy Leslie Marmon Silko, Yellow Woman *Zadie Smith, Crazy They Call Me Art Spiegelman, Prisoner on the Hell Planet: A Case History [graphic story] John Steinbeck, The Chrysanthemums *Tatyana Tolstaya, Aspic Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych John Updike, A& P *Luisa Valenzuela, Vision Out of the Corner of One Eye *Helena Maria Viramontes, The Moths Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Harrison Bergeron Alice Walker, Everyday Use David Foster Wallace, Everything is Green Eudora Welty, A Worn Path William Carlos Williams, The Use of Force Tobias Wolff, Say Yes Virginia Woolf, Kew Gardens Richard Wright, The Man Who Was Almost a Man PART TWO: COMMENTARIES *Joan Acocella, How Angela Carter Became Feminism's Great Mythologist Paula Gunn Allen, Whirlwind Man Steals Yellow Woman Sherwood Anderson, Form, Not Plot, in the Short Story Margaret Atwood, Reading Blind Jorge Luis Borges, Borges and I Matthew C. Brennan, Plotting against Chekhov: Joyce Carol Oates and The Lady with the Dog Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren, A New Critical Reading of The Fall of the House of Usher Ann Charters, Translating Kafka John Cheever, Why I Write Short Stories Anton Chekhov, Technique in Writing the Short Story Kate Chopin, How I Stumbled upon Maupassant Stephen Crane, The Sinking of the Commodore *Anthony Doerr, On Reading The Story and Its Writer *Terry Eagleton, How to Read Literature Ralph Ellison, The Influence of Folklore on Battle Royal Richard Ellmann, A Biographical Perspective on Joyce's The Dead William Faulkner, The Meaning of A Rose for Emily Janice H. Harris, Levels of Meaning in Lawrence's The Rocking-Horse Winner Zora Neale Hurston, How It Feels to Be Colored Me Shirley Jackson, The Morning of June 28, 1948 and The Lottery Gustav Janouch, Kafka's View of The Metamorphosis Sarah Orne Jewett, Looking Back on Girlhood *Jack Kerouac, Essentials of Spontaneous Prose Jamaica Kincaid, On Girl D.H. Lawrence, On The Fall of the House of Usher and The Cask of Amontillado Ursula K. LeGuin, The Scapegoat in Omelas Luis Leal, Magical Realism in Spanish American Literature Simon Lewis, Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies Mario Vargas Llosa, The Prose Style of Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez Jack London, Letter to the Editor on To Build a Fire Katherine Mansfield, Review of Woolf's Kew Gardens Guy de Maupassant, The Writer's Goal Herman Melville, Blackness in Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown J. Hillis Miller, A Deconstructive Reading of Melville's Bartleby, the Scrivener Alice Munro, How I Write Short Stories Vladimir Nabokov, A Reading of Chekhov's The Lady with the Little Dog J.C.C. Nachtigal, Peter Klaus the Goatherd Tim O'Brien, Alpha Company Grace Paley, A Conversation with Ann Charters Jay Parini, Lawrence's and Steinbeck's Chrysanthemums Sydney Plum, Reading The Veil by Marjane Satrapi Edgar Allan Poe, The Importance of the Single Effect in a Prose Tale Joe Sacco, Some Reflections on Palestine *George Saunders, The Perfect Gerbil: Reading Barthelme's The School Leslie Marmon Silko, Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective Matt Steinglass, Reading Tim O'Brien in Hanoi Leo Tolstoy, Chekhov's Intent in The Darling Leo Tolstoy, The Works of Guy de Maupassant Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston: A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View Eudora Welty, Is Phoenix Jackson's Grandson Really Dead? PART THREE: CASEBOOKS *CASEBOOK ONE: Short Shorts or Flash Fiction *Aesop, The Fox and the Grapes *Felix Feneon, To Die like Joan of Arc! *Felix Feneon, Discharged Tuesday *Franz Kafka, The Wish to become an American Indian *John Barth, A Few Words about Minimalism *Charles Baxter, On the Very Short Story *Joyce Carol Oates, On Very Short Fictions *Lydia Davis, Reading Short Shorts CASEBOOK TWO: James Baldwin's Sonny's Blues James Baldwin, Autobiographical Notes Keith E. Byerman, Words and Music: Narrative Ambiguity in Sonny's Blues Kenneth A. McClane, Sonny's Blues Saved My Life CASEBOOK THREE: Raymond Carver Raymond Carver, Creative Writing 11 Tom Jenks, The Origin of Cathedral Arthur M. Saltzman, A Reading of What We Talk About When We Talk About Love A.O. Scott, Looking for Raymond Carver CASEBOOK FOUR: Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Undergoing the Cure for Nervous Prostration Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, A Feminist Reading of Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper *S. Weir Mitchell, from The Evolution of the Rest Treatment Elaine Showalter, On The Yellow Wallpaper CASEBOOK FIVE: Flannery O'Connor Flannery O'Connor, From Letters, 1954-55 Flannery O'Connor, Writing Short Stories Flannery O'Connor, A Reasonable Use of the Unreasonable Joyce Carol Oates, The Parables of Flannery O'Connor Wayne C. Booth, A Rhetorical Reading of O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge Dorothy Tuck McFarland, On Good Country People CASEBOOK SIX: Joyce Carol Oates's Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Joyce Carol Oates, Stories That Define Me: The Making of a Writer Joyce Carol Oates, Smooth Talk: Short Story into Film Don Moser, The Pied Piper of Tucson: He Cruised in a Golden Car, Looking for Action PART FOUR: APPENDICES 1. Reading Short Stories Grace Paley, Samuel Close Reading Short Fiction Guidelines for Close Reading Short Fiction Sample Close Reading: Grace Paley, Samuel Critical Thinking About Short Fiction 2. The Elements of Fiction Plot Character Setting Point of View Style Theme 3. A Brief History of the Short Story 4. Writing About Short Stories Keeping a Short Story Journal Using the Commentaries and Casebooks Writing the Paper Types of Literary Papers Student Essay: Explication: Student Essay: Analysis: Student Essay: Comparison and Contrast: Writing about the Context and the Stories Other Perspectives Student Essay: *Writing the Research Paper *Student Essay: Research Paper: Revising Your Research Paper 5. Literary Theory and Critical Perspectives Formalist Criticism Biographical Criticism Psychological Criticism Historical Criticism Reader-Response Criticism Poststructuralist and Deconstructionist Criticism Gender Criticism Cultural Criticism Selected Bibliography 6. Glossary of Literary Terms Acknowledgements Index of Authors and Titles
