Makeup Study Guide

The format of the test will be as follows:

17 fill-in-the-blanks covering fiction (folklore, traditional short stories, graphic fiction, and flash fiction); authors, actors, & characters; and literary terms
7 multiple choice covering the works, genre, literary terms, and context
several short answer questions covering the works, genre, literary terms, and context
10 pts. extra credit drawing on your memory for detail and your opinion.

genres: folklore, traditional short stories, and flash fiction

folklore -- began as oral stories, later transcribed, often by person outside of the culture

orality -- episodic, begins in the middle of the story (in medias res), flat characters, action rather than insight, performative (story depends on time/place performed)

short stories/fiction --
narration -- 1st person (reliable, unreliable, naive) & 3rd person (objective, omniscient, limited)
setting
plot -- flashbacks & foreshadowing
dialogue
exposition
theme
symbolism
epiphany -- ending that sheds light on a situation or on a character (often the narrator). Note that this is different from a twist ending like "The Necklace"'s.

short stories -- under 10,000 words (read in a single setting)
graphic fiction -- words and images combine to tell story, create character, etc.
flash fiction -- under 1,000 words (there are different categories, but you are not responsible for knowing them)

folklore -- Godfather Death and Coyote & Eagle Visit the Land of the Dead

traditional short stories -- The Red Convertible, The Necklace, Love in LA, Everyday Use, Hills Like White Elephants, Cask of Amontillado

graphic fiction -- The Cigarette

flash fiction -- "Girl," "The Magic Rabbit," and "A Geronimo Moon"

folklore -- Godfather Death (German--transcribed and edited by Brothers Grimm) -- actual storyteller was female, archetypal characters (God, Devil, Death; princess is always beautiful), godson is a doctor who tries to cheat Death, orality

Coyote and Eagle Visit the Land of the Dead (Wishram/Native American) -- Coyote (trickster), Eagle (sidekick), moral, explanation of why death is in the world, orality

Coyote and Eagle Steal the Sun and the Moon (video only)

traditional short stories-- The Red Convertible (1984) (Louise Erdrich -- Native American heritage);  setting -- reservation after Vietnam, 1st person narrator (Lyman), Henry, Suzy (symbol), symbolism, did Henry intend to commit suicide?  Vietnam & post-traumatic stress  (Erdrich & Dorris' interview with Bill Moyers -- dark humor, patriotism, service in wartime) -- story is excerpt from Love Medicine, Ms. Erdrich's first novel

The Necklace (Guy de Maupassant -- French story, translated) -- Madame & Monsieur Loisel, rich friend, class & wealth, story with a surprise ending, older story (1885) -- 3rd person limited omniscience

Love in LA (1990s) (Dagoberto Gilb -- Latino-American) -- Jake & Mariana -- 3rd person limited omniscience-- setting: LA freeway -- almost a flash fiction

Everyday Use (1973) (Alice Walker -- African-American) -- Dee, Maggie, Hakim-a-barber, and mother/narrator -- 1st person (reliable?  unreliable?) -- setting -- rural Georgia in the 1970s -- dream: use of popular culture -- symbol: quilts -- politics & character

Hills Like White Elephants (1927) -- (Ernest Hemingway -- Caucasian-American) -- couple (Jig & the American) -- 3rd person objective -- we don't see inside people -- we don't see their pasts -- man vs. woman (over the decision to have an abortion) -- setting: a restaurant/bar at a railway station in Spain -- characters are rootless) -- is Hemingway the first writer of flash fiction?

The Cask of Amontillado (1846) (Edgar Allan Poe -- Caucasian-American) -- old man (Montresor) tells the story of his revenge against Fortunato for an unspecified injury -- 1st person -- is he reliable? is he unreliable?  -- story is set in the past and in an unspecified European city during carnival (is it Venice?) -- irony & tone -- plot -- Poe was also a critic who called for a literary work to have a single effect -- some say he is the "father" of the short story -- others say that Cask is really a tale (a narrative with fantastical elements, set in an exotic setting)

Graphic fiction
"The Cigarette" (2000) (Marjane Satrapi -- Iranian now living in France) -- words & images -- panel size -- adult narrator tells the story of her coming of age during the early years of the Islamic Republic and the Iran/Iraq War (1980-1989) -- symbols -- cigarette & hamburger -- conflict with mother -- cigarette was stolen from her uncle, an imprisoned dissident who would later be executed

Below is a photo of Tehran in the 1980s.

Flash fiction

I am including "Girl" even though some of you made a good argument for it being a prose poem.

"Girl" (1978 -- date of original publication in the New Yorker) (Jamaica Kincaid -- Antiguan (Caribbean) now living in the United States) -- 1st person -- A working-class Caribbean woman instructs her young daughter on how to be a woman, not a "slut" but the kind of woman a baker would allow to squeeze the bread -- language -- is there plot?  is there character?  there is setting   is there imagery?  -- We listened to Ms. Kincaid read this piece.  She is known for playing with autobiography

"The Magic Rabbit" (2010s). (Catfish McDaris -- Native American) -- 3rd person limited omniscience -- the story of Quick, a poet -- his writer's block -- while he is out on an errand for his wife, his car hits a rabbit, but Quick is able to save it -- while saving the rabbit, he can write again -- he forgets to buy his wife what she had asked for -- is Quick a good person?  -- symbols: rabbit, poem -- what do you make of the ending?

I also showed you McDaris' story "A Geronimo Moon," also a story from the 2010s.  On one level, this is a coming of age story set in the Southwest.  However, the father's sudden death gives this story a twist.  Note how the father dies and where he dies.  Why does McDaris write this twist?  1st person narrator -- as an adult -- is this autobiographical?  is it purely fictional?