ENG215H1 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Vagueness, Montreal, Memory
ENG215H1
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
ENG215 -Lecture 1
1. Canadian short story as an underrated art form
a. Marketplace and book selling → not as economical
b. Perception that it is not as popular
c. Apprentice form: suited for writers who are beginning
2. Edgar Allan Poe (the philosophy of composition)
a. Theory and def of short story aka prose tale
i. Limited to a certain unique or single effect (to which every detail is
subordinate)
ii. Can be read at one sitting of half an hour to two hours
b. This def is helpful → points to absolute management that short story imposes
c. Critique
i. Time is quite random, not meaningful
ii. Short story can have multiple or dynamic effects
1. Might be true that stories conform this model
2. But the do’t HAVE to
3. This is prescriptive!
4. Emphasises limitations and what a short story should do and what
it can do
d. This had lasting influence in terms of how critics and readers thought about the
genre
e. Idea that because of shortness, it had to produce a model of the genre that
stressed:
i. Concentration on a single character and event
ii. Compression of narrative into a single revealing segment
iii. The necessary culminating and unifying moment -the epiphany
f. But the genre is capable of anything, and the only thing about it is that it is short
(said by a contemporary writer) → it is transformative
3. Elizabeth Bowen (wrote introduction to the faber book of modern short stories)
a. Offers a ladark appraisal of short stor that epads fro Poe’s
b. Writers that understand what a short story is capable of sees shortness not as a
lack but as a positive quality
c. The short story could achieve great richness, complexity, or multiplicity AS A
RESULT OF, rather than in spite of, its brevity
d. Shrinking a novel into smaller space and making it more strategic
e. Its shortness can be construed and worked with an aesthetic quality instead of a
limitation
f. Short story displaying with the art of saying less but meaning more
4. In our own reading, we can avoid thinking that short means limited or restrictive; or part
of a generic model → instead, we can look for capacity to accommodate; movement
and layering and scope → pluralism and generosity
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a. Also think how the writers use this artform to become their own cultural artform
(themes, issues, concerns) + how do they address these and how did they work
with the short story form to make that innovation part of the stories themselves
5. Noah Richler quote
a. Importance of reading and studying literature
b. Incendiary things born out of a particular time and place
c. Give form to the times and places we occupy
6. What do the readings tell us about ourselves and short stories?
7. Mihael Crue’s Bread he’s orn in mining town in newfoundland)
a. Passage of time
i. Epads ad goes forard ad there’s a atiipatio of the ouple
beyond the boundaries of the words of the page
ii. But also a sense of movement of time within the story
iii. Defies and challenges rudimentary concept that a story can only deal
with 1 temporal moment
b. Play between what is said and what is not (stated vs gestured/implied)
i. Few words are exchanged between the couple
ii. But there is a power of physical action → testio of the oa’s tie
in her marriage (words are not the only means of relating)
1. Small of back
2. Head in her belly during funeral
c. Death of baby is very sad and unwanted
i. There’s also a ephasis of atural groth that goes alog ith ature
ii. There is a very harvest-y and natural cycles of growth in this place
iii. The baby is premature and it is out of alignment of the natural cycles
Do’t get to deelop to opletio
iv. Husband also emphasises against premature expression of love (like
premature baby → death)
d. Ba has a ae strog oe ut the ouple does’t
i. Given privilege
ii. That naming is conveyed prior to the announcement that the baby is
buried
iii. There is a tension between specifics (name and burial) but yet vagueness
(when and where does this take place? Names of couple?)
iv. THE Larador → earlier time probably but do not know (but also loss of
baby in childbirth where medical practises are not sophisticated) +
reference to agrarian lifestyle
v. She made her voice heard but it seems like her relationship was stoic and
quiet
vi. “he does’t sa her ae ut still gies us ies of itiate parts of her
life (first sexual encounter, pregnancy, burial)
e. Short stories in particular face editing pressures to a more intense degree
f. How do you see the couple and that non-expression of love?
i. Note of use of pronouns in story
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
But how many are necessary: bread has richness because of, not in spite of, brevity, art of saying less but meaning more, highlights (cid:374)arrator"s u(cid:374)dersta(cid:374)di(cid:374)g that so(cid:373)e thi(cid:374)gs do(cid:374)"t (cid:374)eed to be said. In-class analysis: will be given 2 stories to choose from. Importance of understanding origin of short stories: history and foundation of canadian short story. Includes literary and non-literary: culture and tradition to develop short stories. Her transcriptions kept this through line breaks, including pauses and repetitions: the story looks different: much more space and looks like free verse poetry. Page 13: co(cid:455)ote uses la(cid:374)guage a(cid:374)d its (cid:272)o(cid:374)trol of la(cid:374)guage: (cid:862)so do i. i do the sa(cid:373)e. that"s (cid:449)hat i"(cid:373) looki(cid:374)g for(cid:863, he lied! Stories tell us who we are: we are both connected by these stories and separated by their different truths. And where does the danger come from: power: can influe(cid:374)(cid:272)e the (cid:396)eade(cid:396)s" ide(cid:374)tities.
