Short story cycle: a collection of loosely connected stories. A composite novel. A novel in stories. Vignettes. Pastiche.
Those definitions will form the basis of my upcoming course called "He Said, She Said": Gender and Genre in the American Short Story Cycle. The genre shouldn't be a foreign one to students; after all, their retro music interests have included concept albums like Pink Floyd's The Wall and serial television shows like Law & Order. Each song, each episode is independent, but all together the individual pieces form a larger narrative with recognizable shared elements. Movies with sequels don't seem as relevant because they are more like books in a series, maybe because the separate movies are not short and aren't produced quickly enough for close comparison. Obviously, I'm still working out the definition of the genre.
I find it curious that in French linguistics the terms "gender" and "genre" are synonymous, and I'd like to explore with my students the possible reasons for the relationship between the two words as they mean "kind" or "type."
I'm hoping that narrative theory will help us parse out the distinctions between the short story cycle and short story collections and between genre and gender. How do we know we're reading a short story, apart from its length? Can a short story cycle include novellas? Do male and female writers, especially those writing in close chronology and about similar subjects, treat the cycle differently? Why have multicultural authors so eagerly grasped the short story cycle in the past 20-30 years? Whatever happens, I don't want to essentialize gender or ethnicity, but I still think sexual and cultural identity issues are relevant somehow.
What has been most difficult is choosing the reading selections. I initially had a list of about twenty books, but that number is not realistic for the students or for me. In my original list, I included titles by Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner, but I gradually eliminated them as I conceptualized the course. As I read the James selection, it felt like swimming in a pool of maple syrup, a sensation that doesn't bode well for students; as for Hemingway and Faulkner, I'm hoping the students will have already read these big names. Maybe I'll regret these omissions. In the order of their appearance in the course calendar, here is the list of texts I've finalized with the bookstore:
Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, 1993.
Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio, 1919.
Carver, Cathedral, 1983.
Erdrich, Love Medicine, 1984.
Jewett, Country of Pointed Firs, 1910.
Naylor, The Women of Brewster Place, 1982.
Norman, Kinfolks: The Wilgus Stories, 1977.
O’Brien, The Things They Carried, 1990.
O’Connor, Everything that Rises Must Converge, 1963.
Toomer, Cane, 1923.
Welty, The Golden Apples, 1949.
Wilkinson, Water Street, 2005.
In this blog forum I'm hoping to work through some ideas and welcome any input.
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I wouldn't have omitted Hemingway, but I suppose in a course like this choices can be difficult and you have to think of what will be best for the students. I'd day more authors have drifted towards writing short stories because we're in a fast paced culture in which most people aren't interested in reading a whole entire book or simply don't feel they have the time, but will gladly take in a short story--something with a beginning middle, climax, and conclusion--that can be finished in a short time span. I've also wondered about how long a "short story" is supposed to be until it becomes a book, especially considering that "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is technically supposed to be a short story, but is more like a small book. I'm glad to see you've picked Carver and O'Connor. This ought to be a fun course.
ReplyDeleteSorry I'll miss it. :(
ReplyDelete@Ichthus05: I agree with your point about why readers may be drawn to short stories, but what about short story cycles? Is it because these collections are easier to read over a long period of time without forgetting everything necessary to understand each piece?
ReplyDelete@BlueDude: Wish you could co-teach it!
I would LOVE to take this class : (
ReplyDeleteyou had me at "gender" and "genre"
ReplyDelete