Great short stories II

We begin the week with two stories that are obsessed with letters, and which therefore invite us to consider the position of the reader. V S Pritchett once said ‘dialogue is my form of poetry’; his virtuoso character studies in the two tales we will read showcase this skill with brilliant comic effect, but also prompt us to ask how well we really can ‘read’ one another. In the final part of the course we turn back to the political potential in short stories. Angela Carter draws on fairy and folk tales, transforming familiar narratives into strange, beautiful and compelling new shapes. Nadine Gordimer writes unforgettably about the experiences of migration, poverty and injustice in South Africa. Like Hemingway half a century earlier, Gordimer forces us to question the boundary between literary fiction and journalism, and sends us away from our reading with a new sense of our place in the world. Our final seminar will consider two stories that draw our attention back again to form, asking questions about where stories begin and end.

We will find that the term ‘short story’ applies to an amazing variety of tales in all kinds of styles, dealing with all sorts of topics in ways that range from the hilarious to the heart-breaking. A selection of this kind is inevitably partial and personal; as well a reading a number of texts that are new to you, students are encouraged to bring along their own favourite short stories. What makes the greatest short stories so great, and which ones speak to you most powerfully?