A Critical analysis of short stories 20th and 21st century fiction

Overview of American Literature

-Puritan/Colonial (1650-1750) -Revolutionary/Age of Reason (17501800) -Romanticism (1800-1860) -American Renaissance/ Transcendentalism (1840-1860) -Realism (1855-1900) -The Moderns (1900-1950) -Harlem Renaissance (1920s) -Post-Modernism (1950 to present) -Contemporary (1970s-Present

American writers in the 20th & 21st century

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence Stephen Crane The Red Badge of Courage T.S Eliot The Waste Land F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby Sinclair Lewis Ernest Hemingway A Farewell to Arms Arthur Miller West Side Story John Steinbeck Grapes of Wrath Harper Lee Sylvia Plath Ralph Elison The Invisible Man Eudora Welty John Updike Joyce Carol Oates Sheldon Siegel David James Duncan

Overview of British Literature

-Early and Medieval English Literature -Elizabethan Drama -The 17th Century -The 18th Century -The Romantic Period -The 19th Century novels -The Twentieth Century

British writers in the 20th and 21st century

Joseph Conrad Virginia Wolf D.H. Lawrence E.M. Forster T.S.Eliot William Butler Yeats Oscar Wilde George Orwell John Fowles Graham Greene

 When analysing a text, ask yourself

Questions for analysis

-Is the author male or female? -Is the text narrated by a male or female? -What types of roles do women have in the text? -Are the female characters the protagonists or secondary and minor characters? -Do any stereotypical characterizations of women appear? -What are the attitudes toward women held by the male characters? -What is the authors attitude toward women in society? -How does the authors culture influence his or her attitude? -Is feminine imagery used? If so, what is the significance of such imagery? -Do the female characters speak differently than do the male characters? In your investigation, compare the frequency of speech for the male characters to the frequency of speech for the female characters.
Bressler (1994: 109)

-Is there an outright rejection of socialism in the work? -Does the text raise fundamental criticism about the emptiness of life in bourgeois society? (bourgeoisie people in a society who are rich, educated and own land) -In portraying society, what approximation of totality does the author achieve? -What is emphasized, what is ignored? -How well is the fate of the individual linked organically to the nature of societal forces? -What are the works conflicting forces? -At what points are actions or solutions to problems forced or unreal? -Are characters from all social levels equally well-sketched? -What are the values of each class in the work? -Are the main problems or solutions in the text individual or collective? -Which values allow effective action?
Ira Shor (1972)

Tutorial
In Hills Like Elephants, the couple discuss an issue that relates to social (moral, religious, legal) issues. How are the views of the characters presented? How does the writer evoke social / post- modern views? In the story Three Hours between Planes, how does the writer show the emotions of the characters? How does he show differences in emotion between genders? Analyse Greenes use of characterisation in A Little Place off the Edgware Road. How is it significance to the plot? Explicate Townsends The Mahogany Table using one of the literary theory. Support your analysis with evidence.