| The Short Story." A Contemporary Looking Glass contains a substantial collection of short stories and a considerable amount of material about short stories. We hope that students and instructors alike will find the selections enjoyable and the various introductory sections and individual discussions both interesting and helpful. Since we enjoy short stories ourselves, the last thing we want to do is discourage anyone from cultivating a personal interest in this important literary form. At the outset, we have included a brief historical review of the forerunners of the modern short story. We have done this because we think the review will put the genre into perspective and help students to understand, and thus to enjoy, the stories in the book. Part I, "Structural Elements of the Modern Short Story," discusses five basic elements: plot, character, emotion, symbolism, and theme. The section includes a general introduction as well as a detailed discussion of each element. Eachdetailed discussion is accompanied by two or three illustrative stories. Part II,"Points of View in the Modern Short Story," explains the various vantagepoints from which an author can present the action of a story. This sectionincludes a detailed introduction and eleven illustrative stories. Part III, "His-torical Evolution of the Modern Short Story," details the development of thegenre in the nineteenth century and its subsequent growth to a more varied andexperimental form in the twentieth century. In addition, the section summa-rizes the literary beliefs and practices of each of the thirty-seven authors whoare represented. Part IV, "Writing About Short Stories," tells how to write papers that ana-lyze the various story elements, as well as those that discuss historical influencesor compare and contrast two or more works. Each story in Parts I and II is accompanied by an analysis--entitled "ByWay of Discussion"--that focuses primarily on either structure or point ofview. In Part II! each story is followed by a set of questions--entitled "ForStudy, Discussion, and Writing"--rather than an analysis. Experience hastaught us that students are likely to do a better job of handling discussionquestions if they have had the opportunity to study and discuss a number ofshort story analyses. However, for instructors who would prefer to use theintroductions to Parts I and II with stories not accompanied by analyses, the"For Additional Reading" lists in each of the individual sections of the twoparts provide appropriate stories found in other sections of the book. |
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