Is it Prose Poetry? Is it Flash Fiction?

The picture above is of St. John's, Antigua, the birthplace of Jamaica Kincaid (born Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson).  In class today, we looked at two pieces, Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl" and Catfish McDaris' "The Magic Rabbit."  Are they prose poetry?  Or are they flash fiction?

Flash fiction is a short story of fewer than 1,000 words.  As Grant Faulkner points out, flash fiction "[adheres] more than any other narrative form to Hemingway’s famous iceberg dictum: only show the top 10 percent of your story, and leave the other 90 percent below water to be conjured."  In other words, it focuses on what is not there rather than what is.

Poetry, to cite the Encyclopedia Britannica's definition, "evokes a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience or a specific emotional response through language chosen and arranged for its meaning, sound, and rhythm."

Poets.org defines prose poetry in the following way:

Though the name of the form may appear to be a contradiction, the prose poem essentially appears as prose, but reads like poetry. In the first issue of The Prose Poem: An International Journal, editor Peter Johnson explained, “Just as black humor straddles the fine line between comedy and tragedy, so the prose poem plants one foot in prose, the other in poetry, both heels resting precariously on banana peels.”

While it lacks the line breaks associated with poetry, the prose poem maintains a poetic quality, often utilizing techniques common to poetry, such as fragmentation, compression, repetition, and rhyme. The prose poem can range in length from a few lines to several pages long, and it may explore a limitless array of styles and subjects.

On Monday, we will look at some prose poems.  Here is our reading:  

Naomi Shihab Nye's "Hammer and Nail" http://www.webdelsol.com/tpp/tpp5/tpp5_nye.html

Russell Edson's "The Canoeing" and "The Fall"

http://www.prose-poems.com/edson.html

Harryette Mullen's [Of a girl, in white]: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51719/of-a-girl-in-white

Here are some questions relevant to our flash fiction by Kincaid and McDaris.  By the way, here is a link to "A Geronimo Moon," the story I mentioned towards the end of class: https://literallystories2014.com/2015/06/18/a-geronimo-moon-by-catfish-mcdaris/

Choose one of the flash fictions (including "A Geronimo Moon").  Choose at least one element of fiction.  How does that element contribute to the flash fiction?  Choose one element of fiction that seems to be missing.  How does the absence of that element affect the story?

Now that we've discussed "Girl," and that you've read other prose poetry, is Jamaica Kincaid's piece flash fiction?  Or is it prose poetry?  Why?  Why not?

Choose a symbol in "Girl."  How does it contribute to the piece's success?

Choose a passage of language in "Girl," "The Magic Rabbit," or "A Geronimo Moon."  How does that passage of language contribute to the story's success?

Discuss the impact of listening to the author read "Girl" on your understanding of this piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHr1HYW0mKE

Is the mother in "Girl" a good mother?  Why?

Is the daughter in "Girl" a good daughter?  Why?

What do you make of the ending of "The Magic Rabbit"?

What do you make of the ending of "A Geronimo Moon"?  Why does the story end the way it does?

Why is the father killed in "A Geronimo Moon"?

Is the son in "A Geronimo Moon" a good son?  Why?

What does Catfish McDaris appear to be saying about Native American culture in "A Geronimo Moon"?  (He is part Native American, by the way.)

Chose one of the flash fictions.  Contrast and compare it to one of the traditional length stories we've read previously.

Could "Love in LA" or "Hills Like White Elephants" be flash fiction?  Why?  Why not?

Here are a few questions about the prose poems.  

What is poetic about the prose poems?  Why?

What is not poetic about the prose poems?  Why?

How are these pieces different from flash fiction?  Why?

Choose one prose poem.  Which emotion does it evoke in you?  Why?

Choose one prose poem.  Choose a passage of language in it.  How does this passage contribute to the success of the prose poem?  to the effect it makes?

Choose one prose poem.  Break it into lines.  How does doing this affect your understanding of the poem?

Read one prose poem aloud.  What is it like?  How does reading it aloud affect your understanding of it?

Discuss the prose in the prose poems.  

Have a good weekend, and see you Monday!