Read article and answer three questions in paragraphs form.1. Many critics have seen in John Updike's work a chronicle of the decline and fall of the American male. What do you think is meant by this? Can you see this theme at work in "Separating"? 2. In many ways Beattie's world resembles Updike's; both present us with couples who are fundamentally unstable and unhappy, and both are firmly realistic in their depiction of setting and character. What differences do you see between them? Can these differences be attributed to gender, or is this too simplistic? 3. Is it possible to read “Cathedral” in a positive way? Can we see the main character as achieving any kind of real insight or knowledge? More broadly, what meanings does the story itself suggest to you? Is it possible to see the blind man (or the cathedral, or anything else in the story) as a significant symbol, and if so, of what?

Date Posted: 03/03/2020

Category: English
Due Date: 03/03/2020

Instruction

While modernism and postmodernism (to be discussed next week) have pushed American fiction over the last century in experimental and frequently fantastic directions, there has also been a countermovement which has emphasized realistic treatments of daily life—what might be called domestic fiction. The stories you are reading this week are examples. As with any literary schools or movements, of course, there are no hard boundaries separating these writers from others; there are inevitably overlaps and influences working in multiple directions. Consider, for example, Raymond Carver, whose “Cathedral” is one of your works this week. Carver is considered the master of the contemporary short story; he published dozens of them, and for writers working in the form today he remains an inescapable influence. Carver’s work is heavily influenced by Ernest Hemingway, particularly in the lack of extended descriptions, the telegraphic style, and the terse, clipped dialogue. Rather than applying this style to stories of safaris and wars, however, Carver uses it to tell the stories of ordinary people and their quiet desperation. His characters eat at fast food restaurants, cling to dead end jobs, drink a little too much, and try to hold on to fading marriages. They rarely give us direct accounts of their inner emotions or thoughts, as Carver prefers to focus on action and allow us to infer what we can. A very different kind of writer, though equally influential, is John Updike. Updike is the master of what has been called (sometimes admiringly, sometimes derisively) “the New Yorker story,” for the frequency with which such stories appear in that magazine. These stories are generally about the domestic or professional woes of whites of the upper or middle classes. They are elegantly written, highly concerned with explicit explorations of the characters’ emotional and mental states, and often end with an epiphany of some kind. It is easy to dismiss such stories as adhering to a formula, but on the other hand, almost all artistic and literary work does adhere to formula to some degree. The fact that Updike tends to be concerned with a specific kind of character should not blind us to his craft or the skill with which he exercises it. All of the stories you will encounter this week are set in a world you will recognize: the world of contemporary America, represented in an essentially straightforward way. They are reminders that American fiction is not a dead field, but a living and vibrant one, with important new works appearing every year.

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proffesoranncarrl | Mar 03, 2020, 13:33 PM