Dubliners: The Dead

Hi,

A reminder of the homework (I wouldn't want you to forget!):

• For Friday, annotate your copy of the opening of 'The Dead'.
• For Tuesday, read the rest of 'The Dead'. You can find a copy of Dubliners here.

Miss B and I have agreed that, as a minimum requirement, you will be expected to read the whole of Dubliners plus another full text of your choosing in preparation for your coursework in September. We will ask you to 'sign up' (in blood) to confirm your chosen second text. By all means, read more.

Here are a few suggestions:

Short story collections

• Ray Bradbury - The Martian Chronicles
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman - The Yellow Wallpaper and other stories
• Ernest Hemingway - The Essential Hemingway
• Raymond Carver - Where I'm Calling From (or this)

Novellas

• Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis (more info here)
• Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse 5

I'll add more as they occur. Plenty of ideas can be found here and here.


Mr M

 

Suspicious readings of Joyce's Dubliners

Hi folks,

A very useful bit of criticism can be found here. Although the whole text is not available, you will be able to read the sections on 'The Sisters' and 'The Dead' - two key stories that appear at either end of the collection.

If you decide on 'Dubliners', take a look.

Mr M

The Sisters by James Joyce

Hi folks,

This week's homework is to read the rest of James Joyce's short story, 'The Sisters'. You can find an online version of 'Dubliners' here, or you can listen to 'The Sisters' (Irish accent and all) here.

I've also asked you to read section 1.1 of the critical anthology. 

On Friday, we'll discuss the story and how it relates to the first section of the anthology; we'll discuss its plot elements, structure and characters; we'll look to map out its structure and reach conclusions about its meanings.

A few introductory points about Joyce and 'Dubliners':

The stories can be split into the following sections:

1. Childhood, contains “The Sisters,” “An Encounter,” and “Araby” (the most anthologized of the stories).
2. Adolescence, is made up of “Eveline,” “After the Race,” “Two Gallants,” and “The Boarding House."
3. Maturity, also is made up of four stories, “A Little Cloud,” “Counterparts,” “Clay,” and “A Painful Case.”
4. Public Life, is made up of “Ivy Day in the Committee Room,” “A Mother,” “Grace,” and the structurally different “The Dead.” 

Dubliners is not merely a group of short stories structured according to stages of human development. Joyce meant Dubliners to be read as a novel of a city’s development, with its inhabitants growing from innocence to experience. In letter to a prospective editor, Joyce wrote:

My intention was to write a chapter of the moral history of my country, and I chose Dublin for the scene because that city seemed to me the centre of paralysis. I have tried to present it to the indifferent public under four of its aspects: childhood, adolescence, maturity, and public life. The stories are arranged in this order. I have written it for the most part in a style of scrupulous meanness and with the conviction that he is a very bold man who dares to alter in the presentment, still more to deform, whatever he has seen and heard.

(from Herbert Gorman, James Joyce, New York, 1940, V-iv.)

This unity and sense of structure in the collection makes it ideal for the purposes of your coursework. Reading one story from each section would give you more than enough to go on. Another selling point for this collection is the theme of human development. Finally, as one of the most famous collections of short stories in all of literature, there is an easily accessible wealth of criticism to be found and lots of material online to help you.

You can read more about James Joyce and 'Dubliners' here. 

Mr M

A brief survey of the Short Story

Hi all,



Here's an excellent series of articles from the Guardian's books blog about the great writers of the short story. Each post focuses on an individual author who has shaped the development of the form in some way. 

Remember, your 'text' for this unit needs to be a substantial work by a single author. This series of articles would be a good starting point in selecting and reading up on an author. 

If you enjoyed 'There Will Come Soft Rains', you need to check out the rest of Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles.




Mr M

10 Great Short Story Collections

Hi,

Check out this list of great collections of short stories.

Remember, your 'text' for the coursework must be a substantial text by a single author. Find something you like, then get reading more by that author over the summer.

Mr M

20 Brilliant Novellas You Should Read

Hi folks,

I'm going to be posting lots of summer reading suggestions to get you thinking about your Theory and Independence coursework.

Here's the first:

20 Brilliant Novellas You Should Read

Mr M