Cengage Learning Understanding Fiction

An intelligent, relevant, and lively new introduction to fiction builds on the success of its parent text, Understanding Literature. With accessible discussions of historical and cultural contexts and critical approaches, biographical information, and a stimulating table of contents, Understanding Fiction offers instructors and students an innovative option in anthologies. Accompanied by the Understanding Literature CD-ROM and Web Site, Understanding Fiction enriches the reading experience, enhances critical thinking, and promotes mastery in writing about fiction. Review Why Study Literature? I. Form and Content 1. Introduction: Reading Fiction Narrative Fiction Characteristics of Fiction The History of Prose Fiction Analyzing and Interpreting 2. Overview: The Formal Elements of Fiction Critical Perspectives: Formalism and New Criticism Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Birthmark" 3. Character Critical Perspective: Psychological Criticism Critical Perspective: Myth Criticism Stories About Character Herman Melville, "Bartleby the Scrivener" Sarah Orne Jewett, "The Flight of Betsey Lane" 4. Setting Critical Perspective: New Historicism Stories About Setting Edgar Allan Poe, "The Fall of the House of Usher" Guy de Maupassant, "Paul's Mistress" 5. Plot Mark Twain, "Story of the Bad Little Boy" Plot Versus Story Plot and Chronology Narrative Types of Plot Realism and Naturalism Jack London, "The Law of Life" Jack London, "To Build a Fire" Ambrose Bierce, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" 6. The Narrator and Point of View Point of View Critical Perspective: Gender and Point of View Critical Perspective: Secrets, Sexuality, and Interpretation Willa Cather, "Paul's Case" Charlotte Perkins Gilman, "The Yellow Wall-Paper" Kate Chopin, "The Story of an Hour" 7. Theme Critical Perspective: Race Criticism Critical Perspective: Marxist Criticism Stories About Race and Class Alice Walker, "Everyday Use" Featured Writer: James Baldwin "Previous Condition" "Sonny's Blues" Issues of Class Tillie Olsen, "I Stand Here Ironing" II. Image, Style, Structure 8. Reading Image and Style Closely Critical Perspective: Semiotics Honore de Balzac, "Sarrasine" 9. Image, Motif, and Symbol Image and Motif Critical Perspective: On Imagery Joseph Conrad, "Heart of Darkness" Modernism E.M. Forster, "The Road from Colonus" Katherine Mansfield, "The Garden-Party" D.H. Lawrence, "The Horse-Dealer's Daughter" James Joyce, "Araby" Symbols Featured Writer: Virginia Woolf "The Symbol" "Kew Gardens" "The Introduction" 10. Language and Style Critical Perspective: On Style Critical Perspectives: Close Readings and Deconstructive Readings F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Babylon Revisited" Ernest Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants" Gertrude Stein, "Miss Furr and Miss Skeen" Style as Substance Featured Writer: William Faulkner "A Rose for Emily" "Golden Land" 11. Tone Critical Perspective: On Tone Stories About Tone Zora Neale Hurston, "Sweat" Flannery O'Connor, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" W. S. Penn, "In Dreams Begins Reality" 12. Structure Critical Perspectives: Structuralism and Psychoanalytic Criticism Stories About Structure Chinua Achebe, "The Sacrificial Egg" Anita Desai, "Studies in the Park" Hanif Kureishi, "Blue, Blue Pictures of You" III. Reading and Interpreting 13. The Perils of Interpretation Edgar Allan Poe, "The Purloined Letter" Desire and Interpretation Critical Perspective: Reader Response Criticism Parables of Reading and Desire, or Seeing What You Want to See Franz Kafka, "A Hunger Artist" Jorge Luis Borges, "The Shape of the Sword" Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" Reading and Misreading Maria Cristina Mena, "The Vine-Leaf" Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, "The Hidden Woman" Dorothy Parker, "The Waltz" 14. Questions of Perception and Representation: Postmodernism Postmodernism Critical Perspective: On Postmodernism Julio Cortazar, "Blow-Up" Italo Calvino, "Mr. Palomar on the Beach: Reading a Wave" Michelle Cliff,