1. “Werewolf” by Angela Carter. How does her version differ from the tale you recall from the various children’s versions of the story?
2. “The Thing in the
3. “Menagerie,” by Charles Johnson. A beast fable is another kind of allegory. What’s the “message” in this story?
4. “Descent of Man” by T.C. Boyle. The story seems to be satirical: what is being satirized?
5. “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula Le Guin. Another allegory, but what is the role and nature of the narrator in the story?
6. “An Old Man With Enormous Wings” by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez. Another allegory: how does point of view in the story control our interpretation of it?
7. “Gingerbread House” by Robert Coover. What are the beneficial and detrimental effects on the reader of breaking the story up into 42 numbered sections that don't proceed chronologically?
8. “The Babysitter” by Robert Coover. How does the characterization in this story depart from the "rules" regarding the construction of and behavior of characters in realistic fiction?
9. “Indian Uprising” by Donald Barthelme. Donald Barthelme frequently parioded conventional forms as a way of reusing and reconceving them. What kinds of traditional stories are being parodied here, and, beneath the humor, what is the subject of the story?
10. “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood. What’s the point of not choosing an ending and writing that story and that story only?
11. “Click” by John Barth. As I mentioned in my comments and
on the handout, metafiction is sometimes called
"fiction about fiction." While the "plot" of Click seems
fairly simple -- Mark and Val attempt to have a pleasant outing at the Acquarium in Baltimore but have a spat instead and some
home to have make-up sex -- a lot else seems to be going on. How much of that
"else" has to do with "fiction about fiction" and in what
way?
12. “The New Atlantis” by Ursula Le Guin. What’s the relationship in the story between the “story” in the italicized text and the “story” in the Roman text?
13. “Father” by Raymond Carver. Minimalists by definition leave a lot out, yet construct stories that can be interpreted from the details extant in the story. What’s been “left out” in the traditional sense in this one? What’s your interpretation of the story?
14. ”Putting a Child to Bed” by. The action of the story is simple, but do the details suggest that under the surface of the simple action lies an ongoing conflict that is growing and must be dealt with or come to terms with? (Pardon my ugly syntax there.)
15. "Texts" and "She Unnames Them." How do these short pieces contrast with traditional short-short stories that use conventional features to make their effects?