Writer’s choice

Posted: December 10th, 2013

Short stories to consider: Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle”; Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minster’s Black Veil”; Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”; Elizabeth Stuart Phelps’ “The Angel Over the Right Shoulder”; Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener”.

A.With reference to three of the above short stories, discuss how each work is influence by its narrator. What did each author gain and sacrifice by his/her choice of narrator?

B. With reference to three of the above short stories, discuss early American attitudes and practices in relation to relationships between men and women.

C.Compare and contrast Annie Proulx’s “Tits-up in a Ditch” with at least two of the above named stories. Consider: word use, sentence structure, strategies of character development and other aspects you notice that might be evidence of how the genre of the short story has develop in America from it beginnings to its contemporary form.

E. Research the characteristics of Gothic fiction and discuss ” the Minister’s Black Veil” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” through that lend.