Inglês F1/F2/F3 Cláudia. Short Stories Love

Transcription

1 Inglês F1/F2/F3 Cláudia Short Stories Love

2 Short Stories are a type of genre. What s Genre? Genre [countable] [formal] a particular type of art, writing, music etc, which has certain features that all examples of this type share: a new genre of filmmaking / a literary genre Italian filmmakers made their own versions of the classic Hollywood genres - the western, the gangster film, the musical. Science fiction as a genre is relatively new. This movie is much better than others of the horror genre. In the eighteenth century the first modern novelists recognized that these genres could be used to tell a story.

3 What s Literary Genre? A literary genre is a category of literary composition. Genres may be determined by literary technique, tone, content, or even (as in the case of fiction) length. Genre should not be confused with age category, by which literature may be classified as either adult, young-adult, or children s. They also must not be confused with format, such as graphic novel or picture book. The most general genres in literature are (in loose chronological order) epic, tragedy, comedy, novel, short story, and creative nonfiction. They can all be in prose or poetry, and are also defined by the general cultural movement of the historical period in which they were composed.

4 What s a short story? Short Stories as a Genre It is shorter than a novel, but longer than a poem. It focuses on one event and has a limited number of characters. It takes place within a short space of time. They help explain and understand the world.

5 History of short stories Before the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440, storytellers used to travel from village to village, telling stories. Two examples of the early, written stories in Europe date back to the 14 th century: Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer Decameron, by Giovanni Boccaccio Modern short stories appeared at the beginning of the 19 century: Fairy Tales, by the Grimm Brothers Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, by Edgar Allan Poe In the late 19 th century, printed magazines and journals started publishing short stories: The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway A Haunted House and Other Stories, by Virginia Woolf 19 th

6 Before Reading Preparing yourself for a story 1. Read the introduction. To help you understand the story, make sure you have some background information on: The author The story you re about to read and its main themes 2. Do the pre-reading reading activities. This will help you get acquainted with specific vocabulary items and language structures you re going to come across when reading. 3. Look at the story s title. What might this story be about? Reading the summary will certainly give you insights into the story, but it won t be enough for the analysis slot.

7 4. Establish a purpose for reading this story. Because my teacher told me to is one obvious purpose, but not a very useful one. Come up with your own question, one based perhaps on the title or a recurrent main theme. 5. Orient yourself. Flip through the story to see how long it is. Take a look at the opening sentences of different paragraphs, and skim through the opening paragraph; this will give you a sense of where the story is set, how difficult the language is, and how long you should need to read the story. While Reading 1. Identify the main characters. Those are the characters that make the story happen or to whom important things happen. Get to know what they are like by asking such questions as what does this character want more than anything else and why?

8 2. Identify the plot or the situation. The plot is what happens. 3. Pay attention to the setting. Setting refers not only to where the story takes place, but when it happens. It also includes details like tone and mood. What does the story sound and feel like? 4. Consider the story s point of view. Think about why the author chose to tell the story through this person s point of view; why in the past instead of the present; in the first instead of the third person. 5. Pay attention to the author s use of time. Some short story writers will make ten years pass by simply beginning the next paragraph. Sometimes writers will also use extra space between paragraphs to signal the passing of time.

9 6. Find the crucial moment. Every short story has a moment of conflict, some tension or element of suspense in it. This is the moment when the character or the story suddenly changes direction. 7. Remember why you are reading this story. Go back to the question you asked when you began reading this story. Double check your teacher s assignment, too. These will help you to read more closely and better evaluate which details are important when you read. After Reading 1. Read first to understand, then to analyze. When you finish the story, check to be sure you understand what happened. Ask: WHO did WHAT to WHOM? If you can answer these questions correctly, move on to the next level: WHY?

10 2. Return to the title. Go back to the title and think about how it relates to the story now that you have read it. What does the title refer to? Does the title have more than one possible meaning? 3. Go through Understanding the Story. Try and answer the questions in the book after reading the story. They will help you focus on important details and prepare you for your final assignment. 4. Go through Literary Analysis. This will help you prepare for both Speaking & Writing Tests.

11 What s Love? The Genre of Love It s a genre that is usually described as romance. Popular romantic fiction follows a certain pattern: the main characters meet and are attracted to each other, but obstacles a put in their way. The hero and heroine must overcome these problems to find their happy ending. Why do we like love stories? They focus on love, a universal emotion, and are interested in the problems connected to it. They allow the reader to escape from the real world, and the more literary works tend to look at love from many angles: not all love stories end happily; actually some are very sad.

12 Romance Fiction in English Courtly Love 12 th century Highly influenced by the poet-musicians of the 12 th century, Courtly Love described a kind of behaviour which idealised the love of a knight for a noblewoman. For example: Geoffrey Chaucer ( ) wrote love poems such as The Canterbury Tales.

13 New Realism 16 th and 17 th centuries They began to move away from courtly love tradition. They described a wider range of feelings and a more realistic type of love, focusing on the difficulties of love. For example: William Shakespeare ( ) and his famous love story Romeo and Juliet (1597) Jane Austen ( ) Pride and Prejudice (1813); Sense and Sensibility (1811) Emily Bronte ( ) Wuthering Heights (1847) Charlotte Bronte ( ) Jane Eyre (1847)

14 Short Stories & Romance Newspapers and magazines often published short stories with romantic themes, and many of them are written from a woman s point of view. For example: D. H. Lawrence ( ) England, My England and Other Stories (1922) F. Scott Fitzgerald ( ) The Great Gatsby (1925) Ernest Hemingway ( ) The Old Man and the Sea (1952) Katherine Mansfield ( ) Sun and Moon (1920)

15 Adaptations Stories with romantic themes are often made into films for the cinema and TV. For example: Jane Austen s famous character Mr. Darcy, from Pride and Prejudice, appears as a fantasy figure in the contemporary novel by Helen Fielding Bridget Jones s Diary (1996). Gone with the Wind (1936); by Margaret Mitchell A Farewell to Arms (1929); by Ernest Hemingway The End of the Affair (1951); by Graham Greene The English Patient (1992); by Michael Ondaatje

16 Story One Title: Themes: Author: Bliss Different kinds of love; Individual perceptions Katherine Mansfield Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp Murry (1888 ( ) was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand. Mansfield left for Great Britain in 1908 where she encountered Modernist writers such as D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf with whom she became close friends.

17 Her stories often focus on moments of disruption and frequently open rather abruptly. Among her most well known stories are "The Garden Party" and "The Fly." During the First World War Mansfield contracted extrapulmonary tuberculosis which rendered any return or visit to New Zealand impossible and led to her death at the age of 34. Katherine Mansfield is considered one of the best short story writers of her period. A number of her works, including "Miss Brill" and "The Doll's House", are frequently collected in short story anthologies. Mansfield also proved ahead of her time in her adoration of Russian playwright and short story writer Anton Chekhov, and incorporated some of his themes and techniques into her writing. She is the subject of the 1973 BBC miniseries A Picture of Katherine Mansfield starring Vanessa Redgrave.

18 Story Two Title: Themes: Author: A Shocking Accident Father-and-son relationship; Reactions to death Graham Greene Henry Graham Greene, ( ) was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world. Greene was notable for his ability to combine serious literary acclaim with widespread popularity.

19 Although Greene objected strongly to being described as a Roman Catholic novelist rather than as a novelist who happened to be Catholic, Catholic religious themes are at the root of much of his writing, especially the four major Catholic novels: The Power of the Glory, The Heart of the Matter and The End of the Affair. Several works such as The Confidential Agent and The Human Factor also show an avid interest in the workings of international politics and espionage. Greene suffered from bipolar disorder, which had a profound effect on his writing and personal life. In his literary criticism he attacked the modernist writers Virginia Woolf and E. M. Foster, for having lost the religious sense, which, he argued, resulted in dull, superficial characters, who "wandered about like cardboard symbols through a world that is paper-thin".

20 Story Three Title: Themes: Author: The Jilting of Jane Respectability, class and social climbing H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells ( ) was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books. Together with Jules Verne, Wells has been referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction".

21 Wells was an outspoken socialist and sympathetic to pacifist views, although he supported the First Word War once it was under way, and his later works became increasingly political. His middle-period novels ( ) were less science- fictional; they covered lower-middle class life (The History of Mr. Polly). Wells contemplates the ideas of nature versus nurture and questions humanity in books such as The Island of Doctor Moreau.

22 Story Four Title: Themes: Author: A Christmas Song Cultural aspirations; classical music; Christmas H. E. Bates Herbert Ernest Bates,, ( ) was an English writer and author. His best-known works include Love for Lydia, The Darling Buds of May, and My Uncle Silas. During World War II he was commissioned into the RAF solely to write short stories. The stories were originally published in the News Chronicles under the pseudonym of Flying Officer X.

23 Later they were published in book form as The Greatest People in the World and How Sleep the Brave. His most popular creation, however, was the Larkin family in The Darling Buds of May. Pop Larkin and his family were inspired by a colourful character seen in a local shop in Kent by Bates and his family when on holiday. The TV series, produced after his death by his son Richard and based on these stories, was a tremendous success. My Uncle Silas stories were also made into a TV series.

24 Story Five Title: Themes: Author: The Sensible Thing The American Dream; young love F. Scott Fitzgerald Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (1896 ( ) was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the Lost Generation of the 1920s.

25 He finished four novels, This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and the Damned, Tender is the Night and his most famous, the celebrated classic, The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald also wrote many short stories that treat themes of youth and promise along with despair and age. While at a country club, Fitzgerald met Zelda Sayre ( ), 1948), the "golden girl" of Alabama youth society. Despite working at an advertising firm and writing short stories, he was unable to convince Zelda that he would be able to support her, leading her to break off the engagement. Nevertheless, they got married short after Fitzgerald s first success.

26 Fitzgerald made several excursions to Europe, and became friends with many members of the American expatriate community in Paris, notably Ernest Hemingway, who did not get on well with Zelda and used to describe her as "insane". As did most professional authors at the time, Fitzgerald supplemented his income by writing short stories for such magazines as Esquire, and sold his stories and novels to Hollywood studios. Fitzgerald began working on his fourth novel during the late 1920s but was sidetracked by financial difficulties that needed his writing commercial short stories, and by the schizophrenia that struck Zelda in Her emotional health remained fragile for the rest of her life.