Research Guides: Short Stories: Short Stories M-Z

"Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield

"Miss Brill" in Short Stories for Students by Kathleen Wilson (Editor)
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 0787616915
Publication Date: 1997-09-15
Contains concise synopses of the plot, characters and themes along with a brief author biography, a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance and excerpted criticism.

Katherine Mansfield by Kate Fullbrook
Call Number: Highlands Circulation -- PR9639.3 .M258 Z65 1986
ISBN: 0253204011
Publication Date: 2000-11-01
See pages 103-106 for specific criticism on "Miss Brill" and background for the work in Mansfield's larger body of work.
Katherine Mansfield by J. E. Kobler
Call Number: Highlands Circulation -- PR9639.3 .M258 Z74 1990
ISBN: 0805783253
Publication Date: 1990-05-01
See pages 64--65 for information on "Miss Brill". Organizing Mansfield's entire story canon according to her most important thematic concerns - such as male/female conflicts - Kobler offers original interpretations of some of Mansfield's most significant stories, and provides a theoretical basis for understanding both her innovations in narration and the enduring relevance of her achievement. He presents Mansfield's comments on her craft, and includes reprints of influential Mansfield criticism.

"Reductive Imagery in 'Miss Brill" by Miriam B. Mandel
Discusses the application of figurative language in the short story 'Miss Brill,' by Katherine Mansfield. Enabling of the reader to understand and evaluate the character; Story's reliance on sense imagery; Development of the images of sight and sound; Observation that the images which bring the story to life simultaneously reduce it.

A Portrait of Katherine Mansfield
Filmed in five countries, this program traces the life of New Zealand’s most beloved writer from her birth in Wellington in 1888, to her untimely death in France in 1923. Mansfield’s extraordinary ability as a writer was influenced by the many fascinating aspects of her complex and often enigmatic personality. The courage she displayed in flaunting many of the conventions of her day places her firmly in the category of "women ahead of their time." Her friendships with fellow members of the Bloomsbury Group—Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence, Bertrand Russell—are closely examined, as is her marriage to critic John Middleton Murray. (53 minutes)

"The Necklace" (or "The Diamond Necklace") by Guy de Maupassant

"The Necklace" in Short Stories for Students by Kathleen Wilson (Editor)
Call Number: e-book
Publication Date: 1998
Contains concise synopses of the plot, characters, style and themes along with a brief author biography, a discussion of the story's historical significance and excerpted criticism.
A Perfect Fit by Jenna Weissman Joselit
Call Number: TT504.4.J67 2001
ISBN: 080505488X
Publication Date: 2001-06-14
While fashions of the rich and famous have been lessly chronicled, little attention has been paid to the meaning of clothes for everyone else. Yet between 1890 and the outbreak of World War II, as ready-to-wear came into its own, the clothes of ordinary Americans claimed the nation's attention. Allied with civic virtue, fashion now played an increasingly important role in shaping the national character.

"L'intelligence de la parure": Notes on Jewelry Wearing in the 1920s" by Simon Bliss
Though Bliss focuses on jewelry produced post-WWI and through 1920s, the article includes discussions of the relationships between jewelry and social status, jewelry and dress, as well as 'how' people wore jewelry in a post-war society.
"Valuing the Visual and Visualizing the Valuable: Jewellery and its Ambiguities" by Marcia Pointon
The author discusses the historical, social, and literary value of diamonds and their relationships desire, decay, and identity. The author also expands on the topic of jewelry as a social mask and a consumptive need for luxury that can be harmful.

"The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant (LibriVox audio)
A reading of Guy de Maupassant's short story by Peter Tomlinson.
"The Diamond Necklace" by Guy de Maupasant
Full-text version from the collection available via Project Gutenberg in THE ENTIRE ORIGINAL MAUPASSANT SHORT STORIES.

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce

"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" in Short Stories for Students by Kathleen Wilson (Editor)
Call Number: ebook
ISBN: 9780787616915
Publication Date: 1997-09-15
Contains concise synopses of the plots, characters and themes along with a brief author biography, a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance and excerpted criticism.
American Short Fiction by Salem Press Editors
Call Number: PS374.S5I58 2013
ISBN: 1619252120
Publication Date: 2013-10-01
The Introduction to Literary Context series provides introductory overviews of some of the world's best-known works of literature, including novels, short stories, novellas, and poems, placing them in historical, societal, scientific and religious context of their time to deepen understanding and encourage discussion.

"Something uncanny": the dream structure in Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.
Ambrose Bierce's 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge' may owe its popularity to its realistic portrayal of a dream-state. The story's structure is psychologically realistic due to the weaving of external stimuli into the dream world of its protagonist, Farquhar. Each motion associated with Farquhar's hanging can be seen affecting the dream he and the reader are immersed in until the very last part of the story. Bierce's story is analyzed in relation to the dream theories of his day.
Bierce's AN OCCURRENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE.
Describes the central pun in the book 'An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,' written by Ambrose Bierce. Suggestion of a hemp-assassin connection by the author's continuing interest in war; Appearance of the pun in the physical description of the character Farquhar; Portrayal of a narcotic hallucination through Farquhar's dream.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1962 film)
The Civil War. A nation torn apart. A war fought in great battles, and a war fought on a much smaller scale…within the minds and hearts of a nation’s young men. On a lonely bridge, a group of soldiers prepare for the somber task of hanging one of their countrymen, now an enemy, for sabotage. This classic retelling of Ambrose Bierce’s acclaimed story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” from Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, begins on an isolated span and then transforms into a far-ranging journey through the mind and dreams of a man facing death. Starring Roger Jacquet, Anne Cornaly, and Anker Larsen. Directed by Robert Enrico. (25 minutes)

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 0585017972
Publication Date: 1890; 1988
During the United States Civil War, a condemned man has many thoughts as he stands on a bridge, awaiting hanging.

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" by Ursula K. Le Guin

"The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" in Short Stories for Students by Kathleen Wilson (Editor)
Call Number: E-Book
Publication Date: 1997
Contains concise synopses of the story's plots, characters and themes along with a brief author biography, a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance and excerpted criticism.
Conversations with Ursula K. le Guin by Carl Freedman (Editor)
Call Number: PS3562.E42Z596 2008
ISBN: 9781604730944
Publication Date: 2008-09-11
Conversations with Ursula K. Le Guin assembles interviews with the renowned science-fiction and fantasy author of The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, The Lathe of Heaven, and the Earthsea sequence of novels and stories. For nearly five decades, Le Guin (b. 1929) has enjoyed immense success--both critical and popular--in science fiction and fantasy. But she has also published well-received works in such genres as realistic fiction, poetry, children's literature, criticism, and translation. In the pieces collected here, Le Guin takes every interview not as an opportunity to recapitulate long-held views but as an occasion for in-depth intellectual discourse. In interviews spanning over twenty-five years of her literary career, including a previously unpublished piece conducted by the volume's editor, Le Guin talks about such diverse subjects as U.S. foreign policy, the history of architecture, the place of women and feminist consciousness in American literature, and the differences between science fiction and fantasy. Carl Freedman is professor of English at Louisiana State University and is the author of Critical Theory and Science Fiction; The Incomplete Projects: Marxism, Modernity, and the Politics of Culture; and George Orwell: A Study in Ideology and Literary Form.

"Ethics and Theory: Suffering Children in Dickens, Dostoevsky, and Le Guin" by Laurie Langbauer
These key texts foreground suffering children. Each founds its ethics in recoil from such horror but recycles it nonetheless, caught in ethical impossibility, repeating what it critiques. Poststructuralism stresses ethics as necessarily paradoxical, a response when there are no clear choices. Narrative provides a site for these insoluble dilemmas, encoding a voyeuristic ethics in excess of individual choices. Yet when narratives display children as the symbol of anguished lived contradictions, the rhetorical effects of this decision implicate those who take it. Ethics as theory provides a means to think through and in such inexplicable questions our readings uncover.
"Leaving Omelas: Questions of Faith and Understanding" by Jerre Collins
In the following essay, Collins discusses Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" as a piece of sociopolitical fiction, and asks why this and other such stories have not succeeded in transforming the American conscience.
"The Morality of Creation: Dostoevsky and William James in Le Guin's 'Omelas'" by Shoshana Knapp
In the following essay, Knapp asserts that Le Guin's short story “The Ones Who Walk away from Omelas” compellingly and artistically presents the theme of absolute moral accountability.
"Ursula Le Guin’s “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” Defies Genre" by Gabrielle Bellot
Discusses of how Le Guin's "Omelas" steps outside the normal boundaries of short stories into the realm of philosophical - even ethical - fiction.

30/30: Thirty American stories from the last thirty years by B. Minh Nguyen (Editor); Porter Shreve (Editor)
Call Number: PS648.S5 A1425 2006
ISBN: 0321338987
Publication Date: 2005-09-28
Chapter 20: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas / Ursula K. Le Guin

"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" by Ursulas Le Guin
Full-text versions of Le Guin's short story
"The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life" by William James
Le Guin drew inspiration for her story from James' essay. See section I, para. 2 - "Or if the hypothesis were offered...."
The Reading Selection from The Brothers Karamazov
The dialogue between Ivan and Aloysha about the suffering of children in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov is frequently said to be an analogue to ”Omelas,” though Le Guin says she wasn’t consciously thinking of it when she wrote her story.
*Reading Selection from The Brothers Karamazov - Chapter 17. "The Problem of Evil " by Fyodor Dostoevsky

"Recitatif" by Toni Morrison

"Recitatif" in Short Stories for Students by Tim Akers and Jerry Moore
Call Number: e-book
Publication Date: 1999
Contains concise synopses of the plot, characters and themes along with a brief author biography, a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance and excerpted criticism.
Playing in the Dark by Toni Morrison
Call Number: PS173.N4 M67 1993
ISBN: 0679745424
Publication Date: 1992-05-01
Author of Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and other vivid portrayals of black American experience, Morrison ponders the effect that living in a historically racialized society has had on American writing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She argues that race has become a metaphor, a way of referring to forces, events, and forms of social decay, economic division, and human panic. Her compelling point is that the central characteristics of American literature--individualism, masculinity, the insistence upon innocence coupled to an obsession with figurations of death and hell--are responses to a dark and abiding Africanist presence. Through her investigation of black characters, narrative strategies, and idiom in the fiction of white American writers, Morrison provides a daring perspective that is sure to alter conventional notions about American literature. She considers Willa Cather and the impact of race on concept and plot; turns to Poe, Hawthorne, and Melville to examine the black force that figures so significantly in the literature of early America; and discusses the implications of the Africanist presence at the heart of Huckleberry Finn. A final chapter on Ernest Hemingway is a brilliant exposition of the racial subtext that glimmers beneath the surface plots of his fiction.

""What the Hell Happened to Maggie?": Stereotype, Sympathy, and Disability in Toni Morrison's "Recitatif"" by Howard Skylar
The article shows that, while the "no pity" position justifiably opposes representations of the disabled that reinforce the perceived weaknesses of the disabled population, there are alternative ways of looking at the role played by sympathy in response to disabled characters in fiction, as is emphasized by an examination of Toni Morrison's short story "Recitatif." While the narrative's dependence on the implicitly disabled character Maggie for its effects suggests that she serves a "prosthetic" role in the development of the protagonists' (and readers') sympathy, the article argues that "Recitatif" makes a significant move in guiding readers toward a more complex view of Maggie's identity, as well as a level of sympathetic engagement that effectively transcends her apparently prosthetic function. Thus, it is demonstrated that a rigid rejection of sympathetic responses to disabled characters denies readers an important opportunity to develop "a cultivated imagination for what men have in common and a rebellion at whatever unnecessarily divides them" (Dewey, 121).
"Maggie in Toni Morrison's "Recitatif": the Africanist presence and disability studies" by Sandra Kumamoto Stanley
Critics have regarded Toni Morrison's "Recitatif" (1983) as a tour de force of racial readings and misreadings--a work exposing society's unspoken racialized codes. (1) In this short story tracing the lives of Twyla and Roberta from their youth in a shelter at St. Bonaventure to various stages of their adulthood, Morrison explores the experiences of two girls of different races, but she never reveals the race of either girl except through a series of social codes that underscore how race may be conflated with class, ambiguous physical traits, and social rituals such as eating certain foods. In Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (1992), Morrison explains, "The only short story I have ever written, 'Recitatif,' was an experiment in the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial" (xi). Thus, it is not surprising that critics have been pre-occupied with the question: Which character is white and which character is black?
"Toni Morrison's 'Recitatif' of Race, Gender, and Myth" by Terry Otten
In the following essay, Otten discusses "Recitatif" as both a departure from and a reflection of Morrison's novels, noting that this short story not only explores racial and gender considerations, but also probes the mythic significance of initiation themes.

Short Stories in the Classroom by Carole L. Hamilton (Editor); Peter Kratzke (Editor)
Call Number: PS374.S5 S48 1999
ISBN: 0814103995
Publication Date: 1999-05-01
Includes the essay "Shuffling the race cards : Toni Morrison's "Recitatif"" by E. Shelley Reid

Toni Morrison : writer's work
Toni Morrison exists in two worlds: the visible world, bustling around her, and the world of her novels, whose characters tell about an interior reality hidden from the eyes of strangers. In her work, Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison has transported millions of readers into the experience of being black in America and confronting the realities of race. In this program with Bill Moyers, Morrison discusses the characters in her work, the people in her life, the power of love, and how the invented world of fiction connects to life. (52 minutes)
Toni Morrison uncensored
In this compelling program, world-renowned author Toni Morrison candidly answers questions regarding how she became a writer, the pain of empathizing with her characters, the sensual nature of her novels, and how it felt to win the Nobel Prize. In addition, she pulls no punches discussing how she first became aware of her racial otherness, how writing for a black audience has kept her work from becoming derivative, the societal uses of racism, and how racism leads to barbarism when individuals abdicate their humanity. (30 minutes)

Calling the Wind by Clarence Major (Editor)
Call Number: PS647 .A35 C35 1993
ISBN: 0060982012
Publication Date: 1993-01-13
Pivotal stories from post-slavery days through the Harlem Renaissance and into the nineties.
*Includes Toni Morrison's only short story "Recitarif".

"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner

"A Rose for Emily" in Short Stories for Students by Tim Akers (Editor)
Call Number: E-Book
Publication Date: 1997
Contains concise synopses of the story's plots, characters and themes along with a brief author biography, a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance and excerpted criticism.

Faulkner, William (author)
Offers information on Baldwin's impact, life, and works.

A Romance to Kill for: Homicidal Complicity in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily".
Examines voice and point of view of the narrator in "A Rose for Emily". Using the first-person plural 48 times , the narrator speaks, as most interpreters of the story, agree, for the town of Jefferson and the South in general during the early decades of the twentieth century. In fact, he represents the real protagonist of the story, which is white southern society. As we shall see, his relationship with Emily is at least as important as her relationship with her former lover, Homer Barron, who was, in a sense, a rival to the town and the South. The relationship between Emily and the narrator (and the society he represents) is symbiotic: imaginatively, neither can exist, as is, without the other. In this and other respects, the narrator and Emily are foils.
"Tobe! Show these gentlemen out"
A response to, and elaboration on the themes examined in "Miss Emily After Dark".
Gender and authorial limitation in Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily.'
William Faulkner adopts a bisexual narrative voice in 'A Rose for Emily' and reveals the limits of gendered narrative through the narrator's inability to understand or know Emily. The men in the town are portrayed as respectful of Emily, while the women are curious. The narrator is both, and like the townspeople cannot know what goes on in Emily's life. This bisexual narration admits the existence of the female protagonist's subjectivity and in doing so has to admit, through this subjectivity which the narrator cannot be a part of, the gendered aspect of narrative itself.
Miss Emily after dark
Examines possibilities and interpretations of Miss Emily's romantic involvements, with a focus on social misconception and denial.
Of time and its mathematical progression: problems of chronology in Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily.'
Eight attempts have been made to establish a consistent chronology for William Faulkner's short story 'A Rose for Emily.' The main problem in fixing a chronology arises from the fact that the first half of Emily's story is told in first-person narrative and by reverse chronological age. The first-person stance lends itself to the use of subjective temporal markers which may not be objectively verifiable. Examination of Faulkner's manuscript allows the date of her father's death to be fixed which can be expanded to an entire new chronology using other internal and external data.
Narrative Motivation in Faulkner's A ROSE FOR EMILY.
A literary criticism is presented for the short story "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner. It examines the ideas of other critics concerning the symbolism of the rose and the hair on the pillow after the Emily character dies. The themes of silence and Christian confession are discussed. It analyzes the timeline of the story to show that Faulkner manipulated it in order to make his points. Obsessive and manipulative behavior of the townspeople is discussed.

A rose for Emily by a film by Lyndon Chubbuck and H. Kaye Dyal ; directed by Lyndon Chubbuck ; produced and written by H. Kaye Dyal ; executive producer, Gary M. Chubbuck.
Call Number: Audio Visual: PS3511.A86R6 1982
ISBN: 9781559818810
Publication Date: 1982
Based on a story by William Faulkner.
Miss Emily Grierson was the fading aristocrat of a small Southern town. When she was young, her tyrannical father drove away all her suitors. Finally free after his death, Miss Emily quickly succumbed to the advances of a Yankee day laborer. Only years later does the town realize the chilling consequences of this ill-fated romance.

Collected Stories by William Faulkner
Call Number: PS3511 .A86 Co7 1995
ISBN: 0679764038
Publication Date: 1995-10-31
Compressing an epic expanse of vision into hard and wounding narratives, Faulkner's stories evoke the intimate textures of place, the deep strata of history and legend, and all the fear, brutality, and tenderness of the human condition. These tales are set not only in Yoknapatawpha County, but in Beverly Hills and in France during World War I. They are populated by such characters as the Faulknerian archetypes Flem Snopes and Quentin Compson, as well as by ordinary men and women who emerge so sharply and indelibly in these pages that they dwarf the protagonists of most novels.

"The Saboteur" by Ha Jin (aka Xuefei Jin)

"Saboteur" in Short Stories for Students by edited by Sara Constantakis
Call Number: e-book
Publication Date: 2011
Contains concise synopses of the plot, characters and themes along with a brief author biography, a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance and excerpted criticism.

China Asserts Itself: Part 2—China New Empire
This program, part two of the China New Empire series, picks off where the first episode left off: after the death of Mao Zedong. Though twice purged by Mao for ideological moderation and economic pragmatism, Deng Xiaoping eventually succeeded him as China’s new ‘Paramount Leader’. Deng’s regime saw the emergence of China as the economic powerhouse we know today. As one historian comments: “During Mao’s final years it was ‘strong nation, poor population.’ With Deng it became ‘rich population: strong nation.’” His policies of gradual economic liberalization, free trade agreements, and private ownership of land led to rapid economic growth. But the psychological effects of this ideological about-turn were complex. “Since 1949 we were told earning money was wrong—was criminal. Now we were told: ‘You must get rich, everyone must do their best to get rich.’ It came as a shock.” And not all of Deng’s policies were progressive. Worried about uncontrollable population growth, he instated the One Child Policy. And his brutal military response to the Tiananmen Square protests altered citizens’ view of the Communist Party forever. “Our government shouldn’t have done this to its people,” one journalist says, her voice breaking. “The 4th June, 1989 took away our faith in China.” Increasingly, dissenters claim the spirit of communism has been sacrificed on the altar of economic success.
China Dominates: Part 3—China New Empire
The third part of the China New Empire series centers on the complexities of contemporary China, including economic growth, sociopolitical issues, disparity in wealth, and wide-spread corruption.

"The Saboteur" by Ha Jin
Ha Jin's short story published in Fall 1996, volume 54:4 of the Antioch Review.

"The Storm" by Kate Chopin

"The Storm" in Short Stories for Students by Gale Cengage Publishing (Created by)
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 9780787689049
Publication Date: 2008-05-09
Contains concise synopses of the story's plot, characters and themes; a brief author biography; a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance; excerpted criticism; and more.

"The Kaleidoscope of Truth: A New Look at Chopin's 'The Storm.' In Short Story Criticsim
In the following essay, Stein notes the ironic ambiguity of "The Storm," contending that Chopin embraced the viewpoints of all the characters without taking sides.

Critical Essays on Kate Chopin by Alice H. Petry
Call Number: PS1294.C63 C75 1996
ISBN: 9780783800325
Publication Date: 1996-11-13
Features a collection of contemporary essays, as well as reviews and reactions by the subject's contemporaries, previously unpublished materials, and a bibliography of the author’s writings.
Kate Chopin
Call Number: PS1294.C63 K65 1996E
ISBN: 0805708650
Publication Date: 1996-11-20
In a seamless, graceful presentation Koloski establishes the biographical, literary, historical, and cultural contexts for the appreciation of Chopin's stories and offers sensitive readings of selected works.

Breaking Down Sterotypes (Regional Realism—American Passages: A Literary Survey)
Listen to an excerpt from Kate Chopin's "At the 'Cadian Ball." Her sequel "The Storm" tells of a woman's one-night stand that finds no consequences. Jocelyn Chadwick says that Chopin was the first voice for American women.

The Awakening and Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin; Sandra M. Gilbert (Contribution by)
Call Number: PS1294.C63 A6 1986
ISBN: 0140390227
Publication Date: 1984-05-01
Includes Chopin's short story "The Storm"

"The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin

"The Story in an Hour" in Short Stories for Students by Gale Cengage Publishing (Created by)
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 9780787689049
Publication Date: 2008-05-09
Contains concise synopses of the story's plot, characters and themes; a brief author biography; a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance; excerpted criticism; and more.

"The Autonomous Female Self and the Death of Louise Mallard in Kate Chopin's 'Story of an Hour.'." In Short Story Criticism
Cunningham maintains that the heroine of "The Story of an Hour" dies of shock resulting from an overwhelming feeling of freedom in the wake of her husband's supposed death.

Critical Essays on Kate Chopin by Alice H. Petry
Call Number: PS1294.C63 C75 1996
ISBN: 9780783800325
Publication Date: 1996-11-13
Features a collection of contemporary essays, as well as reviews and reactions by the subject's contemporaries, previously unpublished materials, and a bibliography of the author’s writings.
Kate Chopin
Call Number: PS1294.C63 K65 1996E
ISBN: 0805708650
Publication Date: 1996-11-20
In a seamless, graceful presentation Koloski establishes the biographical, literary, historical, and cultural contexts for the appreciation of Chopin's stories and offers sensitive readings of selected works.

Kate Chopin: Five Stories of an Hour
This program consists of five versions of the same short story, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, who scandalized American readers in the late 19th century by questioning the social and marital mores of her time. The story examines the behavior and feelings of a woman on the day she is informed of her husband’s death. The program includes a reading of the story by Zoë Wanamaker, plus dramatizations by playwrights Kathleen Potter, David Stafford, and Michelene Wandor. (26 minutes)

A Vocation and a Voice: stories by Kate Chopin; Emily Toth (Introduction by, Notes by)
Call Number: PS1294 .C63 A76 1991
ISBN: 0140390782
Publication Date: 1991-01-01
Published for the first time as Chopin intended, this is a collection of her most innovative stories, including "The Story of an Hour," "An Egyptian Cigarette," and "The Kiss." For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

"Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston

"Sweat" in Short Story for Students 19 by Ira Mark Milne
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 9780787642716
Publication Date: 2004-05-14
Concise synopses of the plots, characters and themes along with a brief author biography, a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance and excerpted criticism.

"Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston; Cheryl A. Wall (Editor)
Call Number: PS3515.U789 S94 1997 Florida
ISBN: 9780813523163
Publication Date: 1997-03-01
"Sweat" exemplifies Hurston's lifelong concern with women's relation to language and the literary possibilities of black vernacular. This casebook for the story includes an introduction by the editor, a chronology of the author's life, the authoritative text of "Sweat," and a second story, "The Gilded Six-Bits," as well as critical essays.

Projecting Gender: Personification in the Works of Zora Neale Hurston
Examines the role of language in Hurston's works and within a wider black cultural experience.
Zora Neale Hurston and the survival of the female
"As in all of Hurston's fiction, male and female are, despite a mutual sexual attraction, still in conflict. Nowhere is this conflict so sharply delineated as in the short story "Sweat," published eleven years before Their Eyes Were Watching God and sharing with it a comparable resolution. "Sweat" involves the desolate marriage between a hard-working washer woman, Delia, and her abusive, unfaithful husband, Sykes. "

"Sweat" by Zora Neale Hurston; Cheryl A. Wall (Editor)
Call Number: PS3515.U789 S94 1997 Florida
ISBN: 081352315X
Publication Date: 1997-03-01
Now frequently anthologized, Zora Neale Hurston's short story "Sweat" was first published in Fire!!, a legendary literary magazine of the Harlem Renaissance, whose sole issue appeared in November 1926. In "Sweat" Hurston claimed the voice that animates her mature fiction, notably the 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God; the themes of marital conflict and the development of spiritual consciousness were introduced as well. "Sweat" exemplifies Hurston's lifelong concern with women's relation to language and the literary possibilities of black vernacular." "This casebook for this story includes an introduction by the editor, a chronology of the author's life, the authoritative text of "Sweat," and a second story, "The Gilded Six-Bits." Published in 1932, this second story was written after Hurston had spent years conducting fieldwork in the southern United States.

"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien

"The Things They Carried" in Short Stories for Students by Tim Moore (Editor); Jerry Moore (Editor)
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 9780787622206
Publication Date: 1999-03-03
Contains concise synopses of the story's plots, characters and themes along with a brief author biography, a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance and excerpted criticism.
Tim O'Brien by Salem Press Editors (Editor); Robert C. Evans (General Editor)
Call Number: PS3565 .B75 Z58 2015
ISBN: 9781619254213
Publication Date: 2015-02-01
This collection brings together a selection of recent representative critical essays on O'Brien from a variety of perspectives. After opening with several short introductory essays, the volume moves on to consider O'Brien's semi-autobiographical coverage of his experience in Vietnam and discusses O'Brien's most famous work, The Things They Carried, in addition to several of his other works.

Urban Legends in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried
An examination of "The Things They Carried" though the lens of urban or modern folklore.
Salvation, storytelling, and pilgrimage in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried
The opening and title story in The Things They Carried details the burdens, physical and emotional, carried by infantrymen in Vietnam. By immediately inviting the reader to join the characters in this journey, a journey that has moral dimensions and the potential for spiritual salvation, The Things They Carried echoes Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress.
The undying uncertainty of the narrator in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried.
Focuses on the inherent problems of understanding and writing about the uncertainties of the Vietnam war experience in Tim O'Brien's novel `The Things They Carried.' Destruction of boundary between fact and fiction; Pattern of stating and questioning facts; Emphasis on ambiguity behind the narrative technique.

30/30: Thirty American stories from the last thirty years by B. Minh Nguyen (Editor); Porter Shreve (Editor)
Call Number: PS648.S5 A1425 2006
ISBN: 0321338987
Publication Date: 2005-09-28
Chapter 26. The Things They Carried / Tim O’Brien

Looking Back at the Vietnam War with Author and Veteran Tim O’Brien
Thirty-five years after the conclusion of the Vietnam War, Tim O'Brien's collection of stories about an American platoon, The Things They Carried, is being reissued as it celebrates its own 20th anniversary. Jeffrey Brown talks to the author about the experiences that led him to write the book.

"This Is What It Means To Say Phoenix, Arizona" by Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie by Jeff Berglund (Editor); Jan Roush (Editor)
Call Number: ebook
ISBN: 9781607819745
Publication Date: 2011-10-01
Sherman Alexie is, by many accounts, the most widely read American Indian writer in the United States and likely in the world. A literary polymath, Alexie's nineteen published books span a variety of genres and include his most recent National Book Award-winning "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian." Now, for the first time, a volume of critical essays is devoted to Alexie's work both in print and on the big screen. Editors Jeff Berglund and Jan Roush have assembled twelve leading scholars of American Indian literature to provide new perspectives on a writer with his finger on the pulse of America. Interdisciplinary in their approach to Alexie's work, these essays cover the writer's entire career, and are insightful and accessible to scholars and lay readers alike. This volume is a worthy companion to the work of one of our nations's most recognized contemporary voices.
Sherman Alexie by Leon Lewis; Salem Press Staff
Call Number: PS3551.L35774Z85 2012
ISBN: 1587658232
Publication Date: 2011-09-30
Noticed initially as a Native American author, Sherman Alexie has since achieved a reputation as a significant figure in the American literary landscape. The essays in this set discuss many different aspects of Alexie's works.

Escape Stories: Narratives and Native Americans in Sherman Alexie's 'The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven'
Examines the role of the storyteller in in Sherman Alexie's "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven."
"Remembering Smoke Signals: interviews with Chris Eyre and Sherman Alexie."
Background and interviews on Smoke Signals.
The approximate size of his favorite humor: Sherman Alexie's comic connections and disconnections in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
In this essay I will argue that Alexie's humor is central to a constructive social and moral purpose evident throughout his fiction but particularly in his collection of short stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. He uses humor--or his characters use humor--to reveal injustice, protect self-esteem, heal wounds, and create bonds.
Ceremonial Tradition as Form and Theme in Sherman Alexie's "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven": A Performance-Based Approach to Native American Literature
Dancing, storytelling, drums, chants: these ceremonial rituals affirm the Indians' need for community, their spiritual legacy, and an empowering sense of who they are. These are the weapons modern Indian warriors need to overturn the white man's stereotypes, to integrate their identities, and to affirm their future survival. These are also the weapons that will convert passive readers into combative participants.
Slow Dancing with Skeletons: Sherman Alexie’s “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven”.
The writer examines Sherman Alexie's collection of short stories The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. He maintains that the Spokane Indian characters that populate Alexie's stories struggle continually against passivity, cynicism, and despair to find healing for the pain that evolves into self-pity and the anger that evolves into self-loathing. Using skeletons as a metaphor for the memories, dreams, and voices that accompany one into the present and the future, he contends, Alexie suggests the dialogic nature of Indian subjectivity and advocates a type of synchronized cooperation between subjects and their skeletons. In these stories, he argues, the characters that stay in step with their skeletons achieve a clarifying introspection that enables them to see themselves in relation to the past, present, and future.
“The same damn stories”: exploring a variation on tradition in Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto fistfight in heaven.
The writer discusses Sherman Alexie's book of interlinked short stories The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. He reads the book as a literary construction as well as a work born of a particular culture and artistic tradition. By doing so, he insists on a more complicated understanding of its content, shape, and meanings in a critique of folklore theories that limit our concepts of the power and dimensions of shaped words. He also challenges the popular but simplistic notion that Native American writing is somehow more “oral” than other texts.

Moyers & Company: Living Outside Tribal Lines
In this edition of Moyers & Company, Bill is joined by writer Sherman Alexie. Born on a Native American reservation, Alexie has been navigating the boundaries of American culture in lauded poetry, novels, short stories, screenplays, and even stand-up comedy for more than two decades. Alexie discusses the challenges of living in different cultures at the same time—“I know a lot more about being white than you know about being Indian,” he tells Bill—and shares his irreverent perspective on contemporary American life. Broadcast dates: April 12, 2013, and May 31, 2013. (43 minutes)

"To Build a Fire" by Jack London

"To Build a Fire" in Short Stories for Students by Ira Mark Milne (Editor)
Call Number: Ebook
ISBN: 9780787636074
Publication Date: 1999-09-10
Easy-to-read discussions of themes, plots and characters -- Easy-to-understand critical essays chosen specifically for students -- Analysis of each work's construction and historical context
American Short Fiction by Salem Press Editors
Call Number: PS374.S5I58 2013
ISBN: 1619252120
Publication Date: 2013-10-01
The Introduction to Literary Context series provides introductory overviews of some of the world's best-known works of literature, including novels, short stories, novellas, and poems, placing them in historical, societal, scientific and religious context of their time to deepen understanding and encourage discussion.

"'To Build a Fire' : Physical Fiction and Metaphysical Critics"
Focuses on the critical assessment of the book 'To Build a Fire' as masterpiece of short fiction in London. Shows how the story both supports and challenges earlier reading of the work.
"'Keeping His Head': Repetition and Responsibility in London's 'To Build a Fire.' "
In "To Build a Fire,' Jack London uses language and repetition to build the character and story.

My Jack London: A Daughter Remembers
This program helps us understand Jack London through the reminiscences of his daughter and rare archival footage.
Jack London: An American Adventure Series
Jack London, one of the most significant American figures of the 20th century, was born at the time when the conquest of the West was living its final moments and America was entering modern times. The master of adventure novels, whose adventurous life is well documented, participated in all the major political, social, and cultural revolutions of the time.

Best Short Stories of Jack London by Jack London
Call Number: PS3523.O46A15 1983
ISBN: 0449300536
Publication Date: 1986-11-12
Include several of London's short stories such as "To Build a Fire" and "Heathen"

"To Build A Fire" by Jack London
Full-text electron version of London's short story.

"The Vane Sisters" by Vladimir Nabokov

"Vladimir Nabokov: Overview" in Reference Guide to Short Fiction
Short discussion of life, character development, and style.

"The Cruelty of Chance: Bend Sinister, 'Signs and Symbols,' 'The Vane Sisters'" by Michael Wood
In the following essay, Wood discusses connections between Bend Sinister, "Signs and Symbols," and "The Vane Sisters."
"The Extraordinary Art of "The Vane Sisters"" by Kenneth Kupsch
Kupsch assesses the artistic function and power of the metaphysical in the story.

Tyrants destroyed and other stories by Vladimir Nabokov
Call Number: PG3476.N3 A25 1975
ISBN: 0070457392
Publication Date: 1975
Include Nabakov's short story "The Vane Sisters"

"A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Bloom's How to Write about Gabriel Garci´a Ma´rquez by Eric L. Reinholtz; Harold Bloom
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 1438127669
Publication Date: 2010
This book explores the works of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, including One Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera, and "A very old man with enormous wings".
"A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" in Short Stories for Students by Tim Akers (Editor)
Call Number: E-Book
Publication Date: 1999-06-04
Contains concise synopses of the story's plots, characters and themes along with a brief author biography, a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance and excerpted criticism.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Rubén Pelayo
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 0313312605
Publication Date: 2001-09-30
"Chapter 5: The Short Stories" includes significant content devoted to "A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings"

Community and interpretive communities in stories by Hawthorne, Kafka and Garcia Marquez
Explores the theme of community in short stories. Franz Kafka's `A Hunger Artist'; Gabriel Garcia Marquez's `A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings'; Nathaniel Hawthorne's `The Minister's Black Veil.'
"The Short Stories" in Short Story Criticism.
In this essay, Pelayo centers on plot, structure, characters, and theme in five of García Márquez's stories: "Monologue of Isabel Watching It Rain in Macondo," "Big Mama's Funeral," "Balthazar's Marvelous Afternoon," "Tuesday Siesta," and "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings."

Gabriel Garcia Marquez by Harold Bloom (Introduction by)
Call Number: PQ8180.17.A73 Z6734 1989
ISBN: 1555462979
Publication Date: 1989-11-01
A collection of eighteen critical essays on the Colombian writer, arranged chronologically in the order of their original publication.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez : Magical Realism
This major production delves into the world of One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Autumn of the Patriarch—the world of García Márquez—where historical riots and levitating grandmothers appear to be equally real (or unreal). Shot on the Colombian coast in Aracataca (Macondo), the Banana Zone, Ciénaga, and Barranquilla, and incorporating rare archival footage, the program features the author himself and the people of whom he writes. (60 minutes)

Part 2 - The "Enormous wings" of Garcia Marquez in Masterpieces of short fiction by Michael Krasny
Call Number: Audio Visual PN3373 .K73 2008
Publication Date: 2008
The form of the genre, as well as the various ways in which it has evolved, is highlighted along the way with a display of the essential nuts and bolts of storytelling-- plot, character, setting, style, point of view, and theme. A mix of critical approaches will also be brought in to enhance analysis and interpretation and to explore some of the ways we judge and evaluate short fiction.

Collected Stories by Gabriel García Márquez; Gregory Rabassa (Translator); S. J. Bernstein (Translator)
Call Number: PQ8180.17.A73 A27 1991
ISBN: 0060913061
Publication Date: 1900-01-01
Collected here are twenty-six of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's most brilliant and enchanting short stories, presented in the chronological order of their publication in Spanish from three volumes: Eyes of a Blue Dog, Big Mama's Funeral, and The Incredible and Sad Tale of lnnocent Erendira and Her Heartless Grandmother. Combining mysticism, history, and humor, the stories in this collection span more than two decades, illuminating the development of Marquez's prose and exhibiting the themes of family, poverty, and death that resound throughout his fiction.

"Walker Brothers Cowboy" by Alice Munro

"Walker Brothers Cowboy" in Short Stories for Students by Jennifer Smith (Editor)
Call Number: e-book
Publication Date: 2001
Contains concise synopses of the plot, characters and themes along with a brief author biography, a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance and excerpted criticism.
"Postcolonialism" in Literary Movements for Students: Presenting Analysis, Context, and Criticism on Literary Movements by Ira Mark Milne (ed.)
Call Number: eBook
Publication Date: 2009
In-depth look at historical, cultural and literary relevance of Postcolonialism as well as modern critical interpretation of characteristic styles and themes.

"Between "what we know and what we do not yet know": Alice Munro’s ‘Walker Brothers Cowboy’" by Aloka Patel
Narratives of growing-up or coming-of-age, which have traditionally been referred to as Bildungsromane have particularly appealed to and inspired women writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Especially for women writers of minority and ethnic groups from former European colonies the Bildungsroman has transformed into a discursive tool to deconstruct imperialism and resist discriminations of race, class and sex, and to articulate multiple problems relating to the understanding of their identity. Such fictions by women seem to claim that women's experience of life and reality are different from that of men. Even as the experiences of the girl child are different from those of boys, literary representation of experiences of certain events in life as catalytic in the development of a child growing up in a particular culture, community, and family, are in my opinion, to certain extent similar irrespective of the gender of the writer or the protagonist. In this regard this paper shall focus on Alice Munro's short story 'Walker Brothers Cowboy' (1968) as a narrative of growing up of a female protagonist, not into a gendered being but a more mature individual in relationship with her immediate family and society. At the same time this essay shall also discuss the psychological development of the narrator's father as perceived by his daughter through memory and narrative, which will emphasize on human relationships as primarily determining an individual's identity and selfhood.

Dance of the happy shades and other stories by Alice Munro
Call Number: PR9199.3 .M8 D3 1998
ISBN: 067978151X
Publication Date: 1998-08-11
In these fifteen short stories--her eighth collection of short stories in a long and distinguished career--Alice Munro conjures ordinary lives with an extraordinary vision, displaying the remarkable talent for which she is now widely celebrated. Set on farms, by river marshes, in the lonely towns and new suburbs of western Ontario, these tales are luminous acts of attention to those vivid moments when revelation emerges from the layers of experience that lie behind even the most everyday events and lives.

"A Wall of Fire Rising" by Edwidge Danticat

Overview, Background, Characters, and Analysis
Critical Articles

Edwidge Danticat: A Reader's Guide by Martin Munro (Editor); Dany Laferrière (Foreword by)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780813930732
Publication Date: 2010-10-12
Offering an accessible guide for readers and critics alike, this book is the first publication devoted entirely to Danticat's unique and remarkable work. It is also distinctive in that it addresses all of her published writing up to The Dew Breaker (2004), including her writing for children, her travel writing, her short fiction, and her novels. The book contains an exclusive interview with Danticat, in which she discusses her recent memoir, Brother, I'm Dying (2007), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. It also includes an extensive bibliography. With contributions from Danticat's fellow creative writers from both the Caribbean and the United States as well as leading scholars of Caribbean literature, this collection of essays aims to enrich readers' understanding of the various geographical, literary, and cultural contexts of her work and to demonstrate how it both influences and is influenced by them.
Critical Nostalgia and Caribbean Migration by J. A. Brown-Rose
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 1433104628
Publication Date: 2009-07-28
The literature of Caribbean writers living in the United States embodies a duality, an awareness of multiple sites of identity as well as conflict of place and space. Easily grouped with African Americans, Caribbean peoples and other immigrants from the African Diaspora make up the quasi-political face of Black America. But as immigrants from a former colonized community, Caribbean writers carry with them a historical experience that differentiates them from African Americans - they stand on the border of two spaces. What impact does this duality have on Caribbean literature written by writers who have left the home space for American soil? As many writers have suggested, Caribbean writers are continuously looking back to home in an attempt to understand who they are and where they belong. This book postulates that it is through nostalgia, or an attempt to renegotiate the past, that the Caribbean writer attempts to reconcile his/her duality. Nostalgia can be directly linked to an understanding of, and by extension a critique of, American social and political practices as well as an appraisal of colonial influences in the Caribbean. Thus the discourse of Caribbean writers living in America operates on different levels: Although Caribbean migratory writers are continuously looking back to home , this nostalgia is tied to a reevaluation of American and island consciousness. The texts discussed in this work are, in effect, engaged in critical analysis; the texts perform criticism of the home country and that man's country - the United States.

Figures of flight and entrapment in Edwidge Danticat's Krik? Krak!
Despite the existence of a rich, continually growing body of scholarship on Edwidge Danticat's short-story cycle Krik? Krak!, still under-examined is the theme of flight. This article explores Danticat's development of the theme by presenting a reading of "A Wall of Fire Rising" in relation to the preceding story, "Nineteen Thirty-Seven," and also in connection with the flying Africans legend, Haitian revolutionary folklore, and twentieth-century literary representations of flight such as Alejo Carpentier's The Kingdom of This World and Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon. By engaging with these narrative traditions of flight, Danticat is able to establish key linkages across African and Haitian diasporic history, investigate new forms of bondage and entrapment, and also rethink a politics of resistance through a framework of gender.
Oral narrative as short story cycle: forging community in Edwidge Danticat's Krik? Krak!
The writer analyzes the Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat's use of the short story cycle in Krik? Krak! Explaining that the term “short story cycle” implies a structural theme for the working out of an idea, characters, or themes, she maintains that Danticat's use of the genre is closely related to oral narrative and serves as a way of fostering imaginative communities and developing identities. Through technical experimentation with the short story cycle, she contends, Danticat heightens the power of narrative and elucidates the significance of the oral mode to her characters by using a genre that engages themes on different levels. In turning to roots as a source of personal identity and creative expression, she argues, Danticat has appropriated the short story cycle as a metaphor for the fragmentation and multiplicity of ethnic lives in order to articulate the process of ethnic self-identification.

Caribbean Women Writers by Harold Bloom
Call Number: PR9205.05.C37 1997
ISBN: 0791044769
Publication Date: 1997-04-01
Includes a concise biography, a selection of critical extracts, and a complete and up-to-date bibliography of the author's publications.
***Edwidge Danticat -- Page 58

"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates

"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" in Short Stories for Students by Kathleen Wilson (Editor)
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 0787616907
Publication Date: 1997-09-15
Contains concise synopses of the plots, characters and themes along with a brief author biography, a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance and excerpted criticism.

"Oates's Where are you going, where have you been?" by Stephen Slimp
In the following essay, Slimp contends that what the character of Connie experiences physically in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" "leads her to an increasing awareness of the horrors of human existence and a resulting growth of her spiritual nature."
"Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" and Cold War Hermeneutics by James Cruise
Joyce Carol Oates's "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is a familiar story in the undergraduate curriculum, as this work appears in many of the textbooks used in first-year writing courses. Yet the story has a provenance that, though hardly unique, goes a long way in explaining the mysteries that surround Oates's otherwise curious adaptation of the initiation tale. Throughout this essay I offer that Oates's narrative is a product of Cold War America and, as such, depends upon a hermeneutics that typified America at mid century when atomic warfare was just a button-push away. This hermeneutics, which developed out of the "containment" culture of the first nuclear age, spread fear and paranoia by blurring the boundaries between reality and fantasy, truth and falsehood. Critics of Oates's story, so often unmindful of the political culture and political history that gave rise to it, seem to have fallen into the trap that this hermeneutics has ever since occasioned. Reading this body of commentary on Oates's story in fact suggests that whatever riddles or secrets perplex her narrative can be, or perhaps ought to be, solved once and for all.Such a view, however, invites rethinking. As I argue, those riddles and secrets that trouble Connie's passage into an "adult," mid century America are to remain that—riddles and secrets. Only in this way—of Connie's not knowing and never knowing—does her journey into adulthood confirm the terror of her life as a child of Cold War "containment."
Impure realism: Joyce Carol Oates's "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"
A.R. Coulthard accused Joyce Carol Oates of taking facts from a 'Life' magazine article and expanding them to disguise how much she had borrowed, inferring that she was a literary fraud and had plagiarized. Actually, Oates's 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?' uses some of the article's facts to bend the rules of dream vision technique and drag the reader into the nightmare of the girl who was murdered. Her realism, the source of Coulthard's complaint, captures the reader and raises the question of whether the portrayed murderer exists in true reality.
Joyce Carol Oates's "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" as Pure Realism
Discusses the realistic mode used by Joyce Carol Oates in the short story 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?'. Oates' modeling of her story on Charles Schmid's murder of Alleen Rowe in the fall of 1965; Oates' characterization of Arnold Friend; Consistent naturalism of the story; So-called symbols of Arnold Friend as supernatural demon.

"A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" by Bob Dylan (audio)
Lyrics and streaming video of Bob Dylan's song "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", the song that inspired Oates to write her short story.

American Short Story Masterpieces by Raymond Carver (Editor); Tom Jenks (Editor)
Call Number: PS648.S5 A49 1987
ISBN: 0440204232
Publication Date: 1989-04-02
Includes the short story "Where are you going, where have you been?" by Joyce Carol Oates

"The Pied Piper of Tuscon" by Don Moser.
Text-only version of the article originally published in Life Magazine, March 4, 1966.
Digital scan of the original Life article
Article about the life and crimes of convicted serial murderer Charles Schmidt which served as inspiration for Oates' short story.

"Why I Live at the P.O." by Eudora Welty

"Why I Live at the P.O." in Short Stories for Students by Michael L. LaBlanc and Ira Mark Milne (Editor)
Call Number: E-Book
Publication Date: 2000
Contains concise synopses of the story's plots, characters and themes along with a brief author biography, a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance and excerpted criticism.

The Struggle for Agency in Eudora Welty's 'Why I Live at the P.O.'
Analyzes the struggle for agency between two sisters in the short story 'Why I Live at the P.O.,' by Eudora Welty. Spinster sister's dire need for attention; Attempts to discredit other family members; Gaining of feelings of importance in job at the post office.
Ties that bind: the poetics of anger in “Why I live at the P.O.” by Eudora Welty
An analysis of the poetics of anger in Eudora Welty's story “Why I Live at the P.O.” This text would fit in quite well in an anthology of literary anger. It is a wonderful example of family fury, which stages a whole range of belligerent emotions. In a convulsive atmosphere, brickbats, threats, and insults are copiously exchanged in a deafening tone, and physical abuse accompanies verbal abuse. Sister is called a hussy by grandfather, and Mama slaps her in the face, while Uncle Rondo tears off Stella's kimono. Things are thrown around and grabbed from others. Doors are slammed, ketchup is spilled, and firecrackers go off to increase the cacophony. The fanatical rhythm in this story tends to be farcical and seems to have, as Sister puts it, “no rhyme or reason.” On the other hand, however, it might be more true to say that the family's anger is too disquieting to be acknowledged and consequently needs to be displaced in a variety of ways.

Eudora Welty: a study of the short fiction by Carol Ann Johnston
Call Number: PS3545 .E6 Z73 1997
ISBN: 0805779361
Publication Date: 1997-03-14
Whether "Why I Live at the P.O.," "Clytie," or "Moon Lake," a short story by Eudora Welty (b. 1909) is remarkable for its ability to convey the lyrical in everyday life, to offer haunting glimpses into the interior lives of individuals. Known for her marvelous ability to render the life and character of the deep South, Welty is particularly admired for her unfailing powers as an observer and her keen ear for the spoken word. In Eudora Welty: A Study of the Short Fiction, Carol Ann Johnston provides a first-rate guide to the writer's canon of short stories. Emphasizing the influence on Welty's literary craft of her work as a photographer for the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression, Johnston presents a compelling appraisal of the writer's unique contributions to the tradition of the short story. An original approach to appreciating the accomplishments of a singular voice in American literature, Eudora Welty: A Study of the Short Fiction holds definite appeal for students and scholars of American literature, the short story, and Southern literature.

The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
Call Number: PS3545 .E6 A15 1980
ISBN: 0151189943
Publication Date: 1980-10-29
This complete collection includes all the published stories of Eudora Welty. There are forty-one stories in all, including the earlier collections A Curtain of Green, The Wide Net, The Golden Apples, and The Bride of the Innisfallen, as well as previously uncollected stories.

Interview with Eudora Welty
On this episode of Camera Three, James Macandrew interviews Eudora Welty and Hildegarde Dolson about Welty's work. Topics include: regional writing, creative process, background, influences, symbolism in literature, and literary criticism.

"A Worn Path" by Eudora Welty

"A Worn Path" in Short Stories for Students by Kathleen Wilson (Editor)
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 0787616915
Publication Date: 1997-09-15
Concise synopses of the plots, characters and themes along with a brief author biography, a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance and excerpted criticism.

The Hero's Journey by Harold Bloom (Introduction by); Blake Hobby (Contribution by)
Call Number: PN56.5.H45H47 2009
ISBN: 0791098036
Publication Date: 2009-01-01
Includes essays on the themes of "The Worn Path": "The Woman Warrior and the Hero's Journey" by Lauren P. De La Vars -- "The Worn Path" (Eudora Welty). "'The Worn Path' and the Hero's Journey" by Jean Hamm.

Mistletoe in Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path."
Presents a contextual analysis of the short story "A Worn Path," by Eudora Welty. Significance of the mistletoe in the story; Symbolism of the mistletoe; Description of Phoenix Jackson, the protagonist of the story.
Toward the north star: Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path" and the slave narrative tradition
Examines "A Well Worn Path" through the lens of the slave narrative, and offers critique of previous readings that obscure the question of race.
"A Worn Path": Immortality of Stereotype
An examination of the character Old Phoenix through the lens of immortality.
"Unsettling Every Definition of Otherness": Another Reading of Eudora Welty's "A Worn Path"
"(...)the text figures the writing process, that much more than a character sketch, "A Worn Path" is a complex analogy of fabulation--of invention, discovery, and subjective expansion. Far from resting on
stereotypes, the story plays upon our "knowledge" of "others" to resist the "wornness" of old scripts. Phoenix's traits--her blackness, femaleness, age, and apparent poverty- are riddles told by the author to challenge the reader both to unlearn and to relearn, that is, to enter the process of creation"

Eudora Welty : Worn Path
On a "bright, frozen day" in Mississippi, 95-year-old Phoenix Jackson makes her mythic journey into town for the medicine her grandson needs. Touching upon themes of family, love, aging, and poverty, this dramatization of Eudora Welty’s classic story "A Worn Path" provides both a heroic image of the human spirit enduring against tremendous odds and a poignant commentary on the African-American experience. An interview with Welty herself by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Beth Henley concludes the program. (32 minutes)

40 Short Stories by Beverly Lawn
Call Number: PN6120.2 .F66 2001
ISBN: 0312259123
Publication Date: 2000-12-22
Includes "A Worn path" by Eudora Welty

"The Yellow Wallpaper" in Short Stories for Students by Kathleen Wilson (Editor)
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 9780787616908
Publication Date: 1997-09-15
It contains concise synopses of the plots, characters and themes along with a brief author biography, a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance and excerpted criticism.
Wild Unrest by Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 9780199739806
Publication Date: 2010-11-18
In Wild Unrest, Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz offers a vivid portrait of Charlotte Perkins Gilman in the 1880s, drawing new connections between the author's life and work and illuminating the predicament of women then and now. "The Yellow Wall-Paper" captured a woman's harrowing descent into madness and drew on the author's intimate knowledge of mental illness. Like the narrator of her story, Gilman was a victim of what was termed "neurasthenia" or "hysteria"--a "bad case of the nerves." She had faced depressive episodes since adolescence, and with the arrival of marriage and motherhood, they deepened. In 1887 she suffered a severe breakdown and sought the "rest cure" of famed neurologist S. Weir Mitchell. Her marriage was a troubled one, and in the years that followed she separated from and ultimately divorced her husband. It was at this point, however, that Gilman embarked on what would become an influential career as an author, lecturer, and advocate for women's rights. Horowitz draws on a treasure trove of primary sources to illuminate the making of "The Yellow Wall-Paper": Gilman's journals and letters, which closely track her daily life and the reading that most influenced her; the voluminous diaries of her husband, Walter Stetson, which contain verbatim transcriptions of conversations with and letters from Charlotte; and the published work of S. Weir Mitchell, whose rest cure dominated the treatment of female "hysteria" in late 19th century America. Horowitz argues that these sources ultimately reveal that Gilman's great story emerged more from emotions rooted in the confinement and tensions of her unhappy marriage than from distress following Mitchell's rest cure. Wild Unrest adds immeasurably to our understanding of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, uncovering both the literary and personal sources behind "The Yellow Wall-Paper."

Reading "The Yellow Wallpaper" as post-traumatic writing
The aim of this paper is to comment on one of these trauma narratives, Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-Paper" which is a multilayered story that narrates a traumatized middle-class woman's acting out the symptoms of trauma caused by the social imposition of reductive models of femininity on her.
Doctoring "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Looks at "The Yellow Wallpaper" in terms of its contemporary reception and the understanding of the effect of the work.
The Writing's on the Wall: Symbolic Orders in 'The Yellow Wallpaper'
nalyzes the importance of language and text in the book 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Psychoanalysis of book by Jacques Lacan; Description of self-constitution in terms of confrontation; Representation of patriarchy in the book; Details on the characterization of the protagonist of the story.
The Reading Habit and 'The Yellow Wallpaper.'.
Focuses on the emotional impact of the book 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Citation of the social condition of women; Interpretation of the novel-reading habit among women; Reflection on the destructive consequences of solitary reading for purpose of escape.

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; Thomas L. Erskine (Editor, Introduction by); Connie L. Richards (Editor, Introduction by)
Call Number: PS1744.G57 Y4534 1993
ISBN: 0813519934
Publication Date: 1993-09-01
includes critical essays about " The Yellow Wallpaper" from a variety of perspectives
"The Yellow Wall-Paper" A Dual Text Critial Edition by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; Shawn St. Jean (Editor)
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 9780821416532
Publication Date: 2006-06-02
This critical edition of "The Yellow Wall-Paper" includes a full and nontraditional apparatus, making it easy for students and scholars to study the more than four hundred variants between the two texts. Four new essays, written especially for this volume, explore the implications of this multitext model.

BBC's Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Yellow Wallpaper
Touted as one of the first major feminist writers, Charlotte Perkins Gilman spent her life fighting to liberate women from the yoke of domesticity. This is a stunning BBC dramatization of Gilman’s autobiographical account of a woman driven to madness by the repressive mores of Victorian culture. Stephen Dillon as the husband, John, and Julia Watson as the despondent heroine give stellar performances in this production directed by the BBC’s John Clive. (76 minutes)
A BBC Production.

"The Yellow Wall-Paper" A Dual Text Critial Edition by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; Shawn St. Jean (Editor)
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 9780821416532
Publication Date: 2006-06-02
This critical edition of "The Yellow Wall-Paper" includes a full and nontraditional apparatus, making it easy for students and scholars to study the more than four hundred variants between the two texts. Four new essays, written especially for this volume, explore the implications of this multitext model.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman; Thomas L. Erskine & Connie L. Richards (editors)
Call Number: PS1744 .G57 Y4534 1993
ISBN: 0813519942
Publication Date: 1993-08-01
Seven charming tales explore relations between the sexes and offer witty insights from a feminist perspective. Includes the 1892 title classic, plus "Cottagette," "Turned," "Mr. Peebles' Heart," and more.

"Yellow Woman" by Leslie Marmon Silko

"Yellow Woman" in Short Stories for Students by Kathleen Wilson
Call Number: e-book
Publication Date: 1998
Contains concise synopses of the plot, characters and themes along with a brief author biography, a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance and excerpted criticism.

"The Web of Meaning: Naming the Absent Mother, in Storyteller" by Patricia Jones
In the following essay, Jones analyzes Silko's use of the traditional Yellow Woman myth as a means of presenting the stories of the Laguna woman, her mother, and herself--merging myth and autobiography.
"Leslie Marmon Silko and Simon J. Ortiz: Pathways to the Tradition" by Dave Henderson
he article discusses how the stories of Native American writers such as Simon J. Ortiz and Leslie Marmon Silko can show the connections between Native oral traditions and literature. It identifies the traditional features preserved in Native literature and ways in which oral tradition students can apply their knowledge to such literature. Stories by Silko and Ortiz that were originally published in Kenneth Rosen's 1974 anthology of Indian writing "The Man to Send Rain Clouds" are discussed.
"“We are alive”: (Mis)Reading Joy Harjo’s Noni Daylight as a Yellow Woman" by Chelsea D. Burk
An essay is presented discussing author Leslie Marmon Silko's literary influence on poet Joy Harjo. It defines Harjo's poetic figure Noni Daylight featured in books "What Moon Drove Me To This?" and "She Had Some Horses" as Harjo's alter ego. It mentions Silko's Yellow Woman, a character inspired by the Laguna Pueblo oral tradition.

Leslie M. Silko
The works of Leslie Marmon Silko are strongly rooted in her own matrilineal tribal background. Like all writing of lasting value, they use particular experiences and places to reveal universal truths. Here, Silko discusses her own background and the interrelationship between her smaller, immediate Native American world and the larger, brutal surrounding world. (45 minutes)

Spider Woman's Granddaughters by Paula Gunn Allen
Call Number: PS508 .I5 S64 1990
ISBN: 044990508X
Publication Date: 1990-05-12
Native American scholar, literary critic, poet, and novelist Paula Gunn Allen, who is herself a Laguna Pueblo-Sioux Indian, became increasingly aware in her academic career that the writings of Native Americans, especially women, have been marginalized by the Western literary canon. Allen set out to understand why this was so and, more importantly, to remedy the situation. The result is this powerful collection of traditional tales, biographical writings, and contemporary short stories, many by the most accomplished Native American women writing today, including: Louise Erdrich, Mary Tall Mountain, Linda Hogan, and many others.

"Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Young Goodman Brown" in Short Stories for Students by Kathleen Wilson (Editor)
Call Number: e-book
ISBN: 0787616907
Publication Date: 1997-09-15
Contains concise synopses of the plots, characters and themes along with a brief author biography, a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance and excerpted criticism.

"Young Goodman Brown" in Alienation by Harold Bloom; Blake Hobby (Editor)
Call Number: PN56.A45A45 2009
ISBN: 9780791097984
Publication Date: 2009-02-01
In literature, the theme of alienation is frequently represented through characters that are psychologically isolated from society. This volume contains 19 essays that explore the role of alienation in such works as The Bell Jar, Waiting for Godot, The Iliad, and many other works. Featuring original essays and excerpts from previously published critical analyses, this addition to the Bloom's Literary Themes series gives students valuable insight into the title's subject theme.

"Carnivalesque Freedom in Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown. " by S. Selina Jamil
This article presents an analysis of author Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown." The author claims Hawthorne employs imagery and the language of the carnival to mock Puritan values. The title character encounters 'evil' during a walk through the woods and feels compelled to rush towards it, while simultaneously being repelled by it.
The rewriting of the Faust myth in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" by Hubert Zapf
Examines the Faust story, Hawthorne's knowledge of the story, and the way Faust manifests in both "The Scarlett Letter" and "Young Goodman Brown."

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Young Goodman Brown
Was there evil lurking in the gloomy New England woods the night that young Goodman Brown went on his secret errand? Or did he bring the evil with him, locked within his own heart? This program features an outstanding adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic tale—shot on location in historic Salem—that deftly captures the story’s mystery and menace. In addition, a discussion of the life of Hawthorne and the Salem witch trials provides the historical context for this dark gem of American fiction. (43 minutes)

Part 1 -Hawthorne's "Goodman Brown" and lost faith in Masterpieces of short fiction by Michael Krasny
Call Number: Audio Visual PN3373 .K73 2008
Publication Date: 2008
The form of the genre, as well as the various ways in which it has evolved, is highlighted along the way with a display of the essential nuts and bolts of storytelling-- plot, character, setting, style, point of view, and theme. A mix of critical approaches will also be brought in to enhance analysis and interpretation and to explore some of the ways we judge and evaluate short fiction.

40 Short Stories by Beverly Lawn
Call Number: PN6120.2 .A15 2004
ISBN: 9780312413057
Publication Date: 2004-07-05
Gathering forty important short stories in a portable and economical format, the second edition includes even more of the fiction instructors want to teach and more of the help student readers need.

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