tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post5273704142962358423..comments2024-03-09T00:19:36.011-08:00Comments on Reading the Short Story: Reading Like a Writer, Reading Like an EditorCharles E. Mayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642048806407593585noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-38017349244562860932009-07-25T08:49:27.676-07:002009-07-25T08:49:27.676-07:00Thanks for the comment, Colleen. My advice to stu...Thanks for the comment, Colleen. My advice to students about stories was: If the problem in the story could be resolved by social reform or bailout money, then it was not a problem complex and subtle enough to require a short story.Charles E. Mayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11642048806407593585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-26934311792441946382009-07-24T12:40:55.969-07:002009-07-24T12:40:55.969-07:00Hi, just found your site and want to thank you for...Hi, just found your site and want to thank you for such a great resource. I especially related to this post. I just graduated with a bachelor's in English, and am now really starting to practice my creative writing skills. Unfortunately, I've found that I keep writing like I was taught to read/analyze, and my pieces become transparently about social problems instead of stories about people. So, I agree with your analsysis of university lit programs completely. <br /><br />Guess I'll have to start reading like a writer, than writing like one next.colleencurryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14178295652153444348noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-74488926390699044322009-07-21T08:43:07.633-07:002009-07-21T08:43:07.633-07:00Thanks for your comment, Becky. It gets to what I...Thanks for your comment, Becky. It gets to what I think is the heart of the matter--literature classes too often focusing on the "what" rather than the "how" of writing. <br /><br />When I taught composition, I was often frustrated trying to help student writers become good readers and good editors of their writing. But even on the graduate level, students nowadays seem to prefer to talk about the socio-political context of a world rather than the work itself. <br /><br />The last graduate class I taught was a seminar in postcolonial literature, in which I tried to get the students to analyze the works for their formal qualities rather than their political content. It was hard going, and I was accused of being old fashioned, right wing, and elitist.<br /><br />It is too bad, I think, that literature programs and creative writing programs are often separated from each other in universities, as if they were totally different subjects.Charles E. Mayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11642048806407593585noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3161136885462262525.post-61155096079812931582009-07-20T16:18:00.949-07:002009-07-20T16:18:00.949-07:00I recall at one college, I taught an introduction ...I recall at one college, I taught an introduction to critical thinking course. One version of the class used literary texts, while the other nonfiction. Without thinking too hard about it, I chose the literature section. I taught the class on the fly, so the Chair gave me an approved textbook and sample assignments. The class, and the textbook emphasized informal logic (deductive/inductive reasoning, argumentation, fallacies). That inevidably meant that the most topical, or political fiction was on the syllabus, with the view that students would analyze the creative work as they would an argument. I often worried that students would come away from the class believing that all literature can be boiled down to premises with warrants, that the best stories were the ones you could write long essays about. Class discussions focused on subject, or the "what" of the literature, not the "how." Unfortunately that's the kind of discussion going on in a lot of literature classes. I should say that I don't think a piece's subject is irrelevant, but it's harder to say why a story is good, or brilliant. That's where students need the most help. Usually, new readers think that if a story is "relatable" or "easy to read," then it is a good story.<br /><br /> In my MFA classes we did talk about the language of our stories, and of the published stories we were assigned, probably much more than I did in my literature classes. We also talked about the logic of the stories. The way we talked about literature, the vocabulary we used, was very different. <br /> <br />Side note: Harper's published one of Munro's "short" stories in the August issue.Beckynoreply@blogger.com