A short story may be read from start to finish in a single sitting, but its impact can last a lifetime. More than simply an abbreviated version of the novel, the short story is a unique and rewarding literary form all its own. Although short stories have been around throughout history in the form of myths, fables, and legends, the short story as a distinct art form arose only during the 19th century, just in time for our busy age. Great short fiction offers something you can find nowhere else: a world in miniature faithfully captured by the author's mastery of character, plot, setting, image, and theme. The time it takes to read a short story may be brief, but the emotions and thoughts it provokes linger with you. In Masterpieces of Short Fiction, Dr. Michael Krasny - Professor of English at San Francisco State University and the host of KQED's award-winning news and public affairs radio program Forum - guides you deep into 23 renowned short works written by some of the masters of the genre. These two dozen lectures are not only an opportunity to enjoy great literature of the 19th and 20th centuries; they are also a chance to learn fascinating facts about the authors' lives and the artistic and historical contexts that helped shape their works.
Masterpieces of Short Fiction
01: Excavations—Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado”
What is a short story? How do we judge the strengths and weakness of short fiction? Using Edgar Allen Poe's masterpiece of suspense and psychological horror, you enter the world of the short story and examine the techniques used by writers in this powerful genre.
02: Hawthorne's “Goodman Brown” and Lost Faith
Colonial puritanism serves as the backdrop for Nathaniel Hawthorne's tale of a young man who glimpses the evil in the human heart. You explore how Hawthorne weaves together the strands of Calvinism, paganism, and Indian lore in this surreal allegory.
03: Under Gogol's “Overcoat”
The next stop is tsarist Russia, where you encounter one of the most influential pieces of 19th-century short fiction. In this darkly satiric yet sympathetic story, Gogol' creates the ultimate “low man,” Akaky, the predecessor of a generation of literary underdogs.
04: Maupassant’s “The Necklace”—Real and Paste
This lecture continues to focus on “little people” with Maupassant's classic tale of bourgeois longing and ironic reversals. In considering the story's famous surprise ending, you examine what the author had to say about morality, materialism, and the unpredictability of fate.
05: Chekhov, Love, and “The Lady with the Dog”
According to novelist Vladimir Nabokov, “All the traditional rules of storytelling have been broken in this wonderful story.” In this lecture, Professor Krasny delineates how Chekhov's unorthodox but deft treatment of character, plot, and setting result in a masterpiece of short fiction.
06: James in the Art Studio— “The Real Thing”
The work of Henry James is the epitome of 19th-century Realism. Using as his source an anecdote about an aristocratic couple and an artist, James creates a unique piece of short fiction that questions the distinction between appearance and reality and raises profound questions about the social order of his day.
07: Epiphany and the Modern in Joyce's “Araby”
This lecture enters the 20th century, moving to Dublin and the work of one of the greatest Modernists, James Joyce. In this story from his famous collection of short fiction, “Dubliners,” Joyce offers a view of a boy's epiphany about life's disappointments expressed through the story of a failed quest.
08: Babel's “My First Goose"—Violent Concision
This lecture takes you back to Russia and to a remarkable initiation tale set against the backdrop of the Bolshevik Revolution. Through Babel's shocking and unsettling tale, you are introduced to a singularly important theme that will recur throughout 20th-century fiction: violence.
09: Male Initiation—Hemingway's “The Killers”
A similar initiation into the world of violence appears in Hemingway's dark story of a young man's encounter with two hit men. The story provides an opportunity to examine the author's mastery of language and to contemplate his enormous influence on later writers.
10: Kafka's Parable— “A Hunger Artist”
In this satirically humorous allegory of the proverbial “starving artist,” Kafka presents a grim but funny vision of the faddishness of public tastes and explores Modernists' ideas about Existentialism and the relationship of art and commerce.
11: Lawrence's Blue-eyed “Rocking-Horse Winner”
A young boy's uncanny abilities have dire consequences for him and his family in this dark fairy tale about materialism and familial relations. This lecture explores the story's many meanings, including its resonance with Lawrence's own complicated relationships with his mother and his wife.
12: Female Initiation—Mansfield's “Party”
Class conflict and psychological complexity take center stage in this great Chekhov-influenced story, which traces the initiation of a young girl from pampered naiveté into the understanding of the relationship between life and death.
13: Jackson's Shocking Vision in “The Lottery”
The mid-century focus begins with “The Lottery,” a tale that shocked the World War II generation. You consider how the story's revelation of a deadly and inhuman ritual reflects a new awareness of the horrors of war and human aggression.
14: O'Connor's “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
This lecture turns to the great Southern American writer Flannery O'Connor, whose harrowing story of a family murdered by a serial killer presents a paradoxical vision of grace.
15: Paley on Survival and “An Interest in Life”
With Grace Paley, you encounter one of the first authors to reflect a feminist perspective. Paley creates the memorable character Virginia, an abandoned wife and mother who, despite her suffering, maintains a kind of faith in life and other human beings.
16: The “Enormous Wings” of García Márquez
Myth and satire blend in this powerful allegory about a winged man who falls from the sky and upsets life in a small South American village. You consider the literary movement of Magical Realism and explore why this story has such a powerful impact on readers.
17: A New World Fable—Malamud's “The Jewbird”
Malamud's story about a fantastical Jewish black bird named Schwartz offers another version of Magical Realism, one that reflects growing anxieties about the assimilation of Eastern European Jews in the United States during the 20th century.
18: Baldwin's “Sonny's Blues"—A Harlem Song
This lecture considers the great Baldwin story “Sonny's Blues,” with its themes of music, drug addiction, suffering, family relationships, and the blues, and examines how the story explores the conflicts implicit in the experience of black Americans.
19: Updike's “A & P"—The Choice of Gallantry
Considered one of John Updike's best short stories, “A & P” is a realistic, bittersweet tale of awakening and the pain of adolescence. You consider how the story reflects both its time (the Sixties) and its place (New England) and appreciate the authentic voice of Updike's narrator, the teenager Sammy.
20: Kingston's “Warrior” Myth— “No Name Woman”
In this story of family secrets, Kingston uses autobiographical details to create an exploration of the meaning of identity. The result is a groundbreaking work that combines strands from ethnic, cross-cultural, and feminist writing.
21: Atwood's “Happy Endings” as Metafiction
Atwood takes the conventions of fiction as her subject in this Postmodernist and satiric explication of what makes a “happy ending.” You consider how readers contribute to the meaning of fiction and test how Atwood's story reflects Hemingway's idea that all stories end in death.
22: Gordimer's “Moment Before” Apartheid Fell
This lecture begins with a discussion of the role of apartheid in South Africa and examines how Gordimer, a long-time antiapartheid activist, creates a story that sheds a compassionate light on both the victims of this oppressive political order and its supporters.
23: Carver's “Cathedral"—A Story that Levitates
Art, transcendence, intimacy, and consciousness-expanding substances all play a role in this subtle and beautifully rendered account of a working stiff, his wife, her blind friend, and the evening they share.
24: Why Short Fiction Masterpieces?
Is short fiction really needed? What does this format offer that cannot be achieved in other literary forms? In this summary, you meditate on the value of the short story and take a long view of its development.
Overview Course No. 2317
About
Dr. Michael Krasny is Professor of English at San Francisco State University. He earned his M.A. from Ohio University, where he is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. Professor Krasny has published a variety of fiction, literary criticism, and political commentary. He is the coauthor of Sound Ideas (McGraw-Hill) and author of Off Mike: A Memoir of Talk Radio and Literary Life (Stanford University Press, 2007), which was on the San Francisco Chronicle and the Marin Independent Journal best-seller lists. Professor Krasny hosts KQED's award-winning Forum, a news and public affairs radio program. He is a veteran interviewer for the nationally broadcast City Arts and Lectures and worked for many years as host of one of ABC's highest-rated radio programs. He has worked as host of KQED's television programs This Week in Northern California and Civic Space and as substitute host for National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation. Professor Krasny received four Kudo Awards from American Women in Radio and Television and the National Public Radio Award from the American Publishers Association. He received two Emmy nominations for his television work.
