Introduction to Fiction, An, 10th Edition

Kennedy/Gioia's An Introduction to Fiction, 10e continues to inspire students with a rich collection of fiction and engaging insights on reading, analyzing, and writing about stories.

 

This bestselling anthology includes sixty-six superlative short stories, blending classic works and contemporary selections.  Written by noted poets X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, the text reflects the authors' wit and contagious enthusiasm for their subject.  Informative, accessible apparatus presents readable discussions of the literary devices, illustrated by apt works, and supported by interludes with the anthologized writers.  This edition features 11 new stories, three new masterwork casebooks, extensively revised and expanded chapters on writing, and a fresh new design.

* indicate sections that are new to this edition.

 

1. READING A STORY

Fable, Parable, and Tales

 

W. Somerset Maugham, The Appointment in Samarra

* Aesop, The North Wind and the Sun

Bidpai, The Camel and His Friends

Chuang Tzu, Independence

Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, Godfather Death

 

Plot

 

The Short Story

John Updike, A & P

 

WRITING EFFECTIVELY

 

Writers on Writing

John Updike, Why Write?

 

Writing About Plot

            Paying Attention to Plot

            Checklist: Analyzing Plot

Writing Assignment on Plot

More Topics for Writing

2. POINT OF VIEW

William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily

* Anne Tyler, Teenage Wasteland

James Baldwin, Sonny's Blues

* Eudora Welty, A Worn Path

 

WRITING EFFECTIVELY

 

Writers on Writing

James Baldwin, Race and the African American Writer

 

Writing About Point of View

            How Point of View Shapes a Story

            Checklist: Understanding Point of View

Writing Assignment on Point of View

More Topics for Writing

3. CHARACTER

Katherine Anne Porter, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall

Katherine Mansfield, Miss Brill 

* Tobias Wolff, The Rich Brother

Raymond Carver, Cathedral 

 

WRITING EFFECTIVELY

 

Writers on Writing

Raymond Carver, Commonplace but Precise Language

 

Writing About Character

            How Character Creates Action

            Checklist: Writing About Character

Writing Assignment on Character

More Topics for Writing

4. SETTING

Kate Chopin, The Storm

Jack London, To Build a Fire

T. Coraghessan Boyle, Greasy Lake

Amy Tan, A Pair of Tickets

 

WRITING EFFECTIVELY

 

Writers on Writing

Amy Tan, Setting the Voice

 

Writing About Setting

            The Importance of Setting

            Checklist: Analyzing Setting

Writing Assignment on Setting

More Topics For Writing

5. TONE AND STYLE

Ernest Hemingway, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

William Faulkner, Barn Burning

 

Irony

* O. Henry, Gift of the Magi

Ha Jin, Saboteur

 

WRITING EFFECTIVELY

 

Writers on Writing

Ernest Hemingway, The Direct Style

 

Writing About Tone and Style

            Be Style Conscious

            Checklist: Thinking about Style and Tone

Writing Assignment on Tone and Style

More Topics for Writing

6. THEME

Stephen Crane, The Open Boat

* Alice Munro, How I Met My Husband

Luke 15: 11-32, The Parable of the Prodigal Son

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Harrison Bergeron

 

WRITING EFFECTIVELY

 

Writers on Writing

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., The Themes of Science Fiction

 

Writing About Theme

            Stating the Theme

            Checklist: Determining a Story’s Theme

Writing Assignment on Theme

More Topics for Writing

7. SYMBOL

John Steinbeck, The Chrysanthemums

Shirley Jackson, The Lottery

Elizabeth Tallent, No One’s a Mystery

Ursula K. Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

 

WRITING EFFECTIVELY

 

Writers on Writing

* Shirley Jackson, Reactions to "The Lottery"

 

Writing About Symbols

            Recognizing Symbols

            Checklist: Thinking about Symbols

Writing Assignment on Symbols

            Student Essay, An Analysis of the Symbolism in Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums"

More Topics For Writing

8. EVALUATING A STORY

* Yiyun Li, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers

 

WRITING EFFECTIVELY

 

Writers on Writing

* Yiyun Li, “What I Could Not Write about Was Why I Was Writing”

 

Writing An Evaluation

            Judging a Story’s Value

            Checklist: Evaluating Fiction

Writing Assignment on Evauating Fiction

More Topics for Writing

9. READING LONG STORIES AND NOVELS

Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych

Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

 

WRITING EFFECTIVELY

 

Writers on Writing

Franz Kafka, Discussing The Metamorphosis

 

Writing About Long Stories and Novels

            Know What to Leave Out

            Checklist: Wrting About a Long Story or Novel

Writing Assignment on Long Works of Fiction

            Student Essay, Kafka's Greatness

More Topics for Writing

10. CRITICAL CASEBOOK: FLANNERY O'CONNOR

Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Flannery O'Connor, Revelation

* Flannery O'Connor, Parker’s Back

 

Flannery O'Connor on Writing

Flannery O'Connor, An Excerpt from “On Her Own Work”: The Element of Suspense in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”

Flannery O'Connor, On Her Catholic Faith

Flannery O'Connor, An Excerpt from “The Grotesque in Southern Fiction”: The Serious Writer and the Tired Reader

Flannery O'Connor, Yearbook Cartoons

 

Critics on Flannery O'Connor

Robert Brinkmeyer Jr., Flannery O’Connor and Her Readers

J. O. Tate, A Good Source Is Not so Hard to Find: The Real Life Misfit

Mary Jane Schenck, Deconstructing "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"

* Kathleen Feeley, The Mystery of Divine Direction: “Parker’s Back”

 

WRITING EFFECTIVELY

 

Writing About an Author

            How One Story Illuminates Another

            Checklist:  Reading an Author in Depth

Writing Assignment on an Author

More Topics For Writing

11. CRITICAL CASEBOOK: 3 Stories in Depth

Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart

 

Edgar Allan Poe on Writing

Edgar Allan Poe, The Tale and Its Effect

Edgar Allan Poe, On Imagination  

Edgar Allan Poe, The Philosophy of Composition 

 

Critics on “The Tell-Tale Heart”

Daniel Hoffman, The Father-Figure in “The Tell-Tale Heart”

* Scott Peeples, “The Tell-Tale Heart” as a Love Story

* John Chua, The Figure of the Double in Poe

 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper

 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman on Writing

* Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”

* Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Whatever Is 

* Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Nervous Breakdown of Women

 

Critics on “Yellow Wallpaper”

Juliann Fleenor, Gender and Pathology in “The Yellow Wallpaper”

* Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Imprisonment and Escape: The Psychology of Confinement

* Elizabeth Ammons, Biographical Echoes in “The Yellow Wallpaper”

 

Alice Walker, Everyday Use

 

Alice Walker on Writing

* Black Women Writers in America, Interview by John O’Brien 

* Alice Walker: “I Know What the Earth Says, ” Interview by William R. Ferris

 

Critics on “Everyday Use”

Barbara T. Christian, “Everyday Use” and the Black Power Movement

* Houston A. Baker and Charlotte Pierce-Baker, Stylish vs. Sacred in “Everyday Use”

* Elaine Showalter, Quilt as Metaphor in “Everyday Use”

12. STORIES FOR FURTHER READING

Chinua Achebe, Dead Men's Path

Anjana Appachana, The Prophecy

Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings

Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

Jorge Luis Borges, The Gospel According to Mark

Willa Cather,  Paul's Case

John Cheever, The Five-Forty-Eight

Anton Chekhov, The Lady with the Pet Dog

Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour

Sandra Cisneros, House on Mango Street.

Ralph Ellison, Battle Royal

Gabriel García Márquez, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World

* Dagoberto Gilb, Look on the Bright Side

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown

Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat

Kazuo Ishiguro, A Family Supper

James Joyce, Araby

Jamaica Kincaid, Girl

Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies

D. H. Lawrence, The Rocking-Horse Winner

Bobbie Ann Mason, Shiloh

Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

Tillie Olsen, I Stand Here Ironing

* Octavio Paz, My Life with the Wave

Leslie Marmon Silko, The Man to Send Rain Clouds

* Helena María Viramontes, The Moths

 

* WRITING  (ALL NEWLY REVISED)

13. WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE

START BY READING ACTIVELY

Robert Frost, NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY

PLANNING YOUR ESSAY

PREWRITING: DISCOVERING IDEAS

            Brainstorming

            Clustering

            Listing

            Freewriting

            Journaling

            Outlining

DEVELOPING A LITERARY ARGUMENT

            Purpose

            Audience

            Topic

            Thesis

            Argument

                        Claims

                        Persuasion

                        Evidence

                        Warrants

                        Credibility

            Organization

            Checklist: Developing an Argument

WRITING A ROUGH DRAFT

Sample Student Essay, Rough Draft

REVISING

            Checklist: Revision Steps

SOME GENERAL ADVICE ON REWRITING

Sample Student Essay, Final Draft

USING CRITICAL SOURCES AND MAINTAINING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

THE FORM OF YOUR FINISHED PAPER

SPELL-CHECK AND GRAMMAR-CHECK PROGRAMS

Anonymous (after a poem by Jerrold H. Zar), A LITTLE POEM REGARDING COMPUTER SPELL CHECKERS

14. WRITING ABOUT A STORY

START WITH ACTIVE READING

THINKING ABOUT THE TEXT

PREPARING TO WRITE: DISCOVERING IDEAS

WRITING A FIRST DRAFT

            CHECKLIST: WRITING A ROUGH DRAFT

REVISING

            CHECKLIST: REVISION

WHAT’S YOUR PURPOSE? SOME COMMON APPROACHES TO WRITING ABOUT FICTION

Explication

            Sample Student Essay (Explication)

Analysis

            Sample Student Essay (Analysis)

The Card Report

            Sample Student Card Report

Comparison and Contrast

            Sample Student Essay (Comparison and Contrast)

TOPICS FOR WRITING

15. WRITING A RESEARCH PAPER

GETTING STARTED

CHOOSING A TOPIC

FINDING RESEARCH SOURCES

Finding Print Resources

Using Online Databases

Using Visual Images

            CHECKLIST:  USING VISUAL IMAGES

Finding Reliable Web Sources

            CHECKLIST: FINDING SOURCES

EVALUATING SOURCES

Print Resources

Choose Web Sources Carefully

            CHECKLIST: EVALUATING SOURCES

ORGANIZING YOUR RESEARCH

REFINING YOUR THESIS

ORGANIZING YOUR PAPER

WRITING AND REVISING

GUARDING ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Papers for Sale Are Papers that “F”ail

A Warning Against Internet Plagiarism

ACKNOWLEDGING SOURCES

Quoting a Source

Citing Ideas

DOCUMENTING SOURCES USING MLA STYLE

List of Sources

Parenthetical References

Works Cited List

Citing Print Sources in MLA Style

Citing Internet Sources in MLA Style

Sample Works Cited List

Endnotes and Footnotes

SAMPLE STUDENT RESEARCH PAPER -

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

REFERENCE GUIDE FOR CITATIONS

16. CRITICAL APPROACHES TO LITERATURE

Formalist Criticism

Cleanth Brooks, The Formalist Critic

Michael Clark, Light and Darkness in "Sonny's Blues"

 

Biographical Criticism

Virginia Llewellyn Smith, Chekhov's Attitude to Romantic

Emily Toth, The Source for Alcée Laballière in “The Storm”

 

Historical Criticism

Hugh Kenner, Imagism

Kathryn Lee Seidel, The Economics of “Sweat”

 

Psychological Criticism

Sigmund Freud, The Nature of Dreams

Gretchen Schulz and R. J. R. Rockwood, Fairy Tale Motifs in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”

 

Mythological Criticism

C. J. Jung, The Collective Unconscious and Archetypes

Edmond Volpe, Myth in Faulkner's "Barn Burning"

 

Sociological Criticism

Georg Lukacs, Content Determines Form

Daniel P. Watkins, Money and Labor in "The Rocking-Horse Winner"

 

Gender Criticism

Elaine Showalter, Toward a Feminist Poetics

Nina Pelikan Straus, Transformations in The Metamorphosis

 

Reader-Response Criticism

Stanley Fish, An Eskimo “A Rose for Emily”

Michael J. Colacurcio, The End of Young Goodman Brown

 

Deconstructionist Criticism

Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author

Barbara Johnson, Rigorous Unreliability

 

Cultural Studies

Vincent B. Leitch, Poststructuralist Cultural Critique

Mark Bauerlein, What Is Cultural Studies?

GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLES

INDEX OF LITERARY TERMS