An Introduction to Fiction 8/e, is a collection of short stories-69 in all-which offers a wide ranging view of classic and contemporary writers. Writer's Perspectives sections give commentary on the craft of writing and revising from authors, which provide insight and a more human perspective on literature and the writing process. Writing Critically sections at the end of each major chapter, expand coverage of composition with accessible and pragmatic suggestions on writing. Critical Approaches to Literature section provides three essays on every major school of criticism with sections on gender criticism and cultural studies. New casebooks on Flannery O'Connor and Raymond Carver. 13 New Stories including works from Aesop, Ha Jin, Eudora Welty, Octavio Paz, Anjana Appachana, Margaret Atwood, Andre Dubus, Kazuo Ishiguro, Leo Tolstoy, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Concise and easy to use new Glossary of Literary Terms helps readers better understand literary terminology. For anyone interested in Fiction.
* Denote selections that are new to this edition. Most chapters conclude with “Writing Assignment” and “Further Suggestions For Writing”.
FICTION. 1. Reading a Story.
Fable, Parable, and Tales.
W. Somerset Maugham, The Appointment in Samarra.
*Aesop, The Fox and the Grapes.
*Bidpai, The Camel and His Friends.
Chuang Tzu, Independence.
Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, Godfather Death.
Plot.
The Short Story.
John Updike, A and P.
Writer's Perspective.
John Updike on Writing, Why Write?
Writing Critically.
What's The Plot?
2. Point of View.
William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily.
*Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies.
James Baldwin, Sonny's Blues.
Eudora Welty, Why I Live at the P.O.
Writer's Perspective.
James Baldwin on Writing, Race and the African-American Writer.
Writing Critically.
How Point of View Shapes a Story.
3. Character.
Katherine Anne Porter, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.
Alice Walker, Everyday Use.
Raymond Carver, Cathedral.
Writer's Perspective.
Raymond Carver on Writing, Commonplace but Precise Language.
Writing Critically.
How Character Creates Action.
4. Setting.
Kate Chopin, The Storm.
Jack London, To Build a Fire.
T. Coraghessan Boyle, Greasy Lake.
Amy Tan, A Pair of Tickets.
Writer's Perspective.
Amy Tan on Writing, Setting the Voice.
Writing Critically.
How Time and Place Set a Story.
5. Tone and Style.
Ernest Hemingway, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.
William Faulkner, Barn Burning.
Irony.
Guy de Maupassant, The Necklace.
Ha Jin, Saboteur.
Writer's Perspective.
Ernest Hemingway on Writing, The Direct Style.
Writing Critically.
Be Style Conscious.
6. Theme.
Stephen Crane, The Open Boat.
*Alice Munro, Day of the Butterfly.
Luke 15: 11-32, The Parable of the Prodigal Son.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Harrison Bergeron.
Writer's Perspective.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. on Writing, The Themes of Science Fiction.
Writing Critically.
Stating the Theme.
7. Symbol.
John Steinbeck, The Chrysanthemums.
Shirley Jackson, The Lottery.
*Elizabeth Tallent, No One's a Mystery.
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.
Writer's Perspective.
Ursula K. Le Guin on Writing, On “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”.
Writing Critically.
Recognizing Symbols.
Writing Assignment.
Student Essay, An Analysis of the Symbolism In Steinbeck's “The Chrysanthemums.”
8. EVALUATING A STORY. Writing Critically. Know What You're Judging. 9. READING LONG STORIES AND NOVELS.
Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych.
Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis.
Writer's Perspective.
Franz Kafka on Writing, Discussing The Metamorphosis.
Writing Critically.
Leaving Things Out.
Writing Assignment--Research Paper.
Student Essay, Kafka's Greatness.
10. Two Critical Casebooks: Edgar Allan Poe and Flannery O'Connor.
*Edgar Allan Poe.
Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart.
*Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher. *Edgar Allan Poe, The Masque of the Red Death.
Edgar Allan Poe on Edgar Allan Poe.
*Edgar Allan Poe, The Tale and Its Effect.
*Edgar Allan Poe, The Philosophy of Composition.
*Edgar Allan Poe, On Imagination.
Critics on Edgar Allan Poe.
Daniel Hoffman, The Father-Figure in “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
Marie Bonaparte, A Psychoanalytic Reading of “The Masque of the Red Death.”
*Charles Baudelaire, On Poe's Genius.
*James W. Tuttleton, Poe's Quest for Supernal Beauty. Flannery O'Connor.
Flannery O'Connor, Good Country People.
Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find.
Flannery O'Connor, Revelation.
Flannery O'Connor on Flannery O'Connor.
Flannery O'Connor, Excerpt from "On Her Own WorkL": The Element of Suspense in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”
Flannery O'Connor, On Her Catholic Faith.
Flannery O'Connor, Excerpt from "The Grotesque In Southern Fiction": The Serious Writer and the Tired Reader.
Flannery O'Connor, Yearbook Cartoons.
Critics on Flannery O'Connor.
Robert Brinkmeyer Jr., Flannery O'Connor and Her Readers.
J. O. Tate, A Good Source Is Not So Hard to Find: The Real Life Misfit.
Mary Jane Schenck, Deconstructing “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”.
Kathleen Feeley, Comic Perversion in “Good Country People”.
Writing Critically.
How One Story Illuminates Another.
11. Stories for Further Reading.
Chinua Achebe, Dead Men's Path.
*Isabel Allende, The Judge's Wife.
Anjana Appachana, The Prophecy.
Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings.
Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.
Jorge Luis Borges, The Gospel According to Mark.
Willa Cather, Paul's Case.
John Cheever, The Five-Forty-Eight.
Anton Chekhov, The Lady with the Pet Dog.
Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour.
*Sandra Cisneros, House on Mango Street.
Ralph Ellison, Battle Royal.
*Gabriel García Márquez, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown.
Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat.
Kazuo Ishiguro, A Family Supper.
James Joyce, Araby.
Jamaica Kincaid, Girl.
D. H. Lawrence, The Rocking-Horse Winner.
Bernard Malamud, Angel Levine.
Katherine Mansfield, Miss Brill.
Bobbie Ann Mason, Shiloh.
Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried.
Frank O'Connor, First Confession.
Tillie Olsen, I Stand Here Ironing.
Leslie Marmon Silko, The Man to Send Rain Clouds.
WRITING. 12. Writing About Literature.
Beginning.
Keeping a Journal.
Using Sources and Maintaining Academic Integrity.
Discovering Essay Ideas.
Drafting and Revising, or Creativity Vs. Analysis.
The Form of Your Finished Paper.
Using Spell-Check and Grammar-Check Programs.
Anonymous, after a poem by Jerrold H. Zar, A Little Poem Regarding Computer Spell Checkers.
13. Writing About a Story.
Explicating.
Sample Student Essay (Explication).
Analyzing.
Sample Student Essay (Analysis).
Sample Student Card Report.
Comparing and Contrasting.
Suggestions for Writing.
*14. Writing a Research Paper.
Conducting Research for an Essay.
Evaluating and Using Internet Sources.
Guarding Academic Integrity.
Acknowledging and Documenting Sources.
Concluding Thoughts.
Reference Guide for Citations.
15. Critical Approaches to Literature.
Formalist Criticism.
Cleanth Brooks, The Formalist Critic.
Michael Clark, Light and Darkness in “Sonny's Blues.”
Biographical Criticism.
Virginia Llewellyn Smith, Chekhov's Attitude to Romantic Love.
*Emily Toth, Scandal and Kate Chopin.
Historical Criticism. John King, The Argentine Context of Borges's Fantastic Fiction.
*Barbara T. Christian , Heritage in “Everyday Use.”
Psychological Criticism.
Sigmund Freud, "The Destiny of Oedipus..”
*Gretchen Schulz and R. J. R. Rockwood, Fairy Tales and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”
Mythological Criticism.
C.G. Jung, "The Collective Unconscious and Archetypes."
Edmond Volpe, Myth in Faulkner's “Barn Burning."
Sociological Criticism.
Georg Lukacs, Content Determines Form.
Daniel P. Watkins, Money and Labor in “The Rocking-Horse Winner."
Gender Criticism.
Elaine Showalter, Toward a Feminist Poetics.
Juliann Fleenor, Gender and Pathology in “The Yellow Wallpaper.”
Reader-Response Criticism.
Stanley Fish, An Eskimo “A Rose for Emily.”
Michael J. Colacurcio, The End of Young Goodman Brown.
Deconstructionist Criticism.
Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author.
Barbara Johnson, Rigorous Unreliability.
Cultural Studies.
Vincent B. Leitch, Poststructuralist Cultural Critique.
Mark Bauerlein, What is Cultural Studies?
GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.
INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLES.
INDEX OF LITERARY TERMS.