CTyankee
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Tue Sep-28-10 05:03 PM
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DUers, I need your help in finishing the design of my short story course for seniors. |
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It's called "American Short Stories of the Late 20th Century." It's a 6 week course. At present I have 4 authors: Cheever, Salinger, Updike and Proulx (I am doing this chronologically).
Could you help me by suggesting 2 other writers of this period? Also the story of each author you like best.
My course subtitle will probably be: A Social Perspective.
Thanks, folks!
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RainDog
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Tue Sep-28-10 05:05 PM
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1. Flannery O'Connor should surely be on that list |
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Edited on Tue Sep-28-10 05:23 PM by RainDog
Also - Tillie Olson was far more important than Proulx is now.
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tomg
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Tue Sep-28-10 05:19 PM
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4. O'Connor was the first one who |
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came to my mind also - "A Good Man is Hard to Find."
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RainDog
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Tue Sep-28-10 05:07 PM
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2. also - Raymond Carver was the master of the short story in the 1980s |
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You should get rid of Updike and instead use Carver - Cathedral, for instance.
I mean, if you want to talk about the American short story - how can you leave out Carver?
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CTyankee
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Tue Sep-28-10 06:23 PM
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16. I know, I'm pretty limiting since all these authors published in The New Yorker. |
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But I DO live in the Northeast and most of my classes will be made up of people who have lived in the Northeast (a lot in NYC). So it's probably OK that I am doing it this way...
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cliffordu
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Tue Sep-28-10 05:08 PM
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3. Nevermind, wrong nationality. |
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Edited on Tue Sep-28-10 05:10 PM by cliffordu
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likesmountains 52
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Tue Sep-28-10 05:22 PM
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5. I read a collection of short stories by Mae Briskin (maybe 10 years ago) |
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in a book titled A Boy Like Astrid's Mother. I lost the book when the storage shed roof leaked, but I recall wanting to hang on to the book b/c it was good writing. Just an offbeat suggestion!
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RainDog
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Tue Sep-28-10 05:31 PM
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6. also - Stuart Dybek - Pet Milk... but |
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Edited on Tue Sep-28-10 05:34 PM by RainDog
actually, there are so many it would be hard to limit.
Lorrie Moore. Jayne Anne Phillips.
What about some post-modernists - Robert Coover.
It seems to me if you want to cover the late 20th c.
you have the Eastern elite - Cheever or Updike or Salinger - they're all really writing about the same milieu so they're over-represented.
You have the realists - Carver, Moore.
You have southern gothic or "gothic,"- but O'Connor was so important in her time... Oates also fits into that category. Shirley Jackson.
You have post-modernists - Coover, Gaddis, Bartheleme.
You have the blue collar/urban like Dybek or Tillie Olson.
African-American voices - Alice Walker is probably the best known.
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CTyankee
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Tue Sep-28-10 06:19 PM
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13. I thought about Barthelme but he was a little strange... |
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however, worth considering...
Alice Walker is probably a good bet. My course is Social Perspectives after all...
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hyphenate
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Tue Sep-28-10 05:31 PM
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Stephen King?
Any of the Beat group--Brautigan, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Thompson? I used to read a lot more of them just after school, but I'm afraid I don't recall much now.
Kurt Vonnegut?
My own personal likes don't always fall with general fiction, as I prefer much older authors, like M.R. James, who I can devour in large spans of time. Or science fiction or fantasy. I only know that each of these above authors in some major way made an impact on society and literature and should be included with the others.
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RainDog
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Tue Sep-28-10 05:35 PM
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9. Atwood is Canadian n/t |
slackmaster
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Tue Sep-28-10 06:32 PM
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18. Canada is in North America |
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:hi:
P.S. - Fifty-four forty or fight.
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alcibiades_mystery
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Tue Sep-28-10 05:33 PM
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Sal Minella
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Tue Sep-28-10 05:43 PM
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10. "Our Work And Why We Do It" by Donald Barthelme |
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I read this in The New Yorker many years ago and found it unforgettable.
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July
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Tue Sep-28-10 05:48 PM
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11. I enjoyed Updike's "Museums and Women" (book of short stories). |
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I read it so long ago, though, that no particular story title comes to mind.
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Vincardog
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Tue Sep-28-10 05:56 PM
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12. “The Day the Dam Broke,” by James Thurber. |
CTyankee
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Tue Sep-28-10 06:21 PM
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15. I LOVED Thurber when I was a kid...but that was a LONG time ago. |
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I don't think Thurber fits the mold here...
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NV Whino
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Tue Sep-28-10 06:20 PM
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Probably the most prolific and varied writer of our time. Almost anything would do.
She did a book of short-shorts about 5 years ago. I didn't care for them myself, but it would be a good inclusion just for technique.
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PSzymeczek
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Tue Sep-28-10 06:30 PM
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and Tobias Wolff are two postwar short story writers.
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Tue May 07th 2024, 08:39 AM
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