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The Iceberg and Its Minimalist Implications in Raymond Carver's Fiction
Sinking the Titanic: The Iceberg and its Minimalist Implications In Raymond Carver's Fiction Senior Paper Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For a Degree Bachelor of Arts with A Major in Literature at The University of North Carolina at Asheville Spring 2006 By John Mozley Thesis Reader Deborah James Thesis Advisor Cynn Chadwick Mozley 1 When Raymond Carver died in 1988 of lung cancer, Robert Gotlieb, the then editor of The New Yorker, stated, "America just lost the writer it could least afford to lose" (Max 36). In Carver's mere twenty-year publishing career, he garnered such titles as "the American Chekhov" (London Times), "the most imitated American writer since Hemingway" (Nesset 2), and "as successful as a short story writer in America can be" (Meyer 239). Carver's stories won the O. Henry Award three consecutive years, he was nominated for the National Book Award in 1977 for Will You Please Be Quiet Please?. won two NBA awards for fiction, received a Guggenheim Fellowship as well as the "Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters" (Saltzman 3), and his collection of stories, Cathedral was nominated for both National Book Critics Circle award and a Pulitzer Prize (Saltzman 3). Born in Oregon in 1938, Carver grew up in Yakima, Washington where his father worked in the sawmill. At twenty years old, Carver was married to his high school sweetheart, Maryanne, and had two children (Saltzman 1). Plagued by debt and escalating alcoholism, the Carvers moved to California where Raymond "worked a series of low-paying jobs, including deliveryman, gas station attendant and hospital janitor, while his wife waited tables and sold door to door" (1), his jobs also included "sawmill worker. -
Omission and Imagery in Hemingway's “Up in Michigan,” Carver's “Chef's House,” Ford's “Rock Springs,” and Ma
Revue de Traduction et Langues Volume 18 Numéro 1/2019, pp.180-203 مجلة الترجمة واللغات Journal of Translation and Languages ISSN (Print): 1112-3974 EISSN (Online):2600-6235 Omission and Imagery in Hemingway’s “Up in Michigan,” Carver’s “Chef’s House,” Ford’s “Rock Springs,” and Mason’s “Residents and Transients” BOUDJERIDA Messaouda University of Abou el Kacem Saâdallah Algiers 2- Algeria [email protected] Received: 15/08/2018; Accepted: 23/07/2019; Published: 31/08/2019 Abstract: Ernest Hemingway’s minimalist style, which is based on his “Theory of Omission,” has exerted a considerable influence on generations of writers. This article provides additional evidence with respect to his narrative influence on the short fiction of the leading figures of literary minimalism. To fulfil this primary aim, a comparative and an analytical study is carried out using Wolfgang Iser’s reception theory. This has been deployed in order to demonstrate that the narrators of Raymond Carver’s “Chef’s House,” Richard Ford’s “Rock Springs,” and Bobbie Ann Mason’s “Residents and Transients” employ the techniques of omission and imagery to affect the readers’ imagination and engage them in the construction of the story’s meaning .More interesting, they make them feel more than they understand the emotional state of the characters, which is left beneath the surface of things, as does Hemingway in his story “Up in Michigan.” Keywords: imagery – influence − literary minimalism – omission − “Theory of Omission.” الملخص: إن أسلوب إرنست همنغواي البسيط ،المبني على -
Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series 2016/2017
Inprint Margarett Root Brown PAID Houston TXHouston US Postage Reading Series Org Non-Profit Permit No. 1002 No. Permit Rabih Lauren Ada 2016/2017 Alameddine Groff Limón Season Tickets $180 The purchase of season tickets, a portion of which is tax-deductible, helps make this series possible. Season ticket benefits include: ŝ Seating in the reserved section for each of the Gregory Ann Annie seven readings. Seats held until 7:25 pm. ŝ Pardlo Patchett Proulx Signed copy of Jonathan Safran Foer’s new novel INPRINT Here I Am, available for pick up at the reading. Those who purchase two season tickets per household will receive a signed copy of George Saunders’ new novel MAIN 1520 WEST Lincoln in the Bardo as the second book. Inprint HOUSTON, TX 77006 HOUSTON, ŝ Free parking passes for each of the seven readings in the Alley Theatre garage. 2016/2017 Margarett Root Brown ŝ Access to the first-served “Season Subscriber” Reading Series book-signing line. Jonathan ŝ Recognition as a “Season Subscriber” in each 2016/2017 reading program. Safran Foer ŝ An acknowledgement letter for tax purposes. 2016/2017 season tickets on sale! on tickets season 2016/2017 To purchase season tickets online or for more details on season subscriber benefits, visit inprinthouston.org To pay by check, fill out the form on the back of this flap. George Colm Juan Gabriel Inprint Margarett Root Brown Root Margarett Inprint Series Reading This is a bookmark Saunders Tóibín Vásquez Dear Friends, One thing I am grateful for, particularly in a political season, is a compelling story or poem that, by its very nature, will not be reduced to platitude or hyperbole. -
Dark Humor and Masculinity Reconstruction in Carver's Stories
ISSN 1712-8056[Print] Canadian Social Science ISSN 1923-6697[Online] Vol. 15, No. 12, 2019, pp. 1-9 www.cscanada.net DOI:10.3968/11461 www.cscanada.org Dark Humor and Masculinity Reconstruction in Carver’s Stories ZHOU Jingqiong[a],* [a]The Faculty of English Culture and Language, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China. INTRODUCTION: CARVER AND HUMOR *Corresponding author. Raymond Carver, dubbed “The American Chekhov” at Received 25 July 2019; accepted 10 November 2019 the time of his premature death in 1988 at the age of fifty, Published online 26 November 2019 is considered “the most important American short story writer of the twentieth century after Ernest Hemingway” Abstract (Miltner, 2014, p.1). It is common knowledge that the study of Carver has Although Carver has enjoyed increasing popularity both a tremendous following in domestic literary criticism, at home and abroad, humor and masculinity construction reaching its apex with the publication of Carver’s in his short stories seem both disproportionately ignored. Collected Stories by the Library of America in the U.S. This paper first focuses on the humor in four of Carver’s The international scholarship has also grown in the past short stories and then discusses the relationship between humor and masculinity construction. Two theories are decade or so: employed to back up my argument: The incongruity The founding of the International Raymond Carver Society by theory of humor and Judith Butler’s re-conception of Sandra Lee Kleppe and Robert Miltner in 2005, and its related gender as performatively constructed and masculinity as journal, the Raymond Carver Review, in 2006, established tenuous and fragile. -
Reading Raymond Carver: a Recovery Narrative
Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies Vol. 16, No. 4 (2020) Reading Raymond Carver: A Recovery Narrative Patricia English-Schneider This essay chronicles the author’s experience with alcoholism. Using an autoethnographic approach, the author describes what it was like as a drinking person and how her life changed after choosing to go sober and enter recovery. This reflection notes the difference between the performance of self during active addiction and the clarity discovered about identity in sobriety. Dealing with loss and relearning how to engage life in healthy ways are central to this author’s performance of a sober identity. Social performance considers how identity is constituted through the roles we en- gage in throughout our lives. Corey (1996) describes identity as a social construct “that is produced, refined and re-produced through performance” (pg. 148). The performances we produce and re-produce in everyday life are influenced by the cultural beliefs, values and attitudes of the cultural members who audience our actions. Butler (2004) describes how the performance of identity is inextricably tied to the relationships we develop and when we lose someone or something im- portant to us, we question who we are. Whether we lose a person, a community, or a lifestyle, our identity is altered in some way. The social performance of iden- tity is fluid and we can be hopeful knowing that we have agency to adapt to changes in our environment. This process of adaptation helps to create a new and dynamic identity. This essay is an autoethnographic account of my experience with alcoholism. -
Regent College
RART_8.4_F3_458-478 5/20/05 6:58 AM Page 458 RAYMOND CARVER AND ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS: THE NARRATIVE UNDER THE “SURFACE OF THINGS” CHAD WRIGLESWORTH Regent College hen Raymond Carver met Richard Ford in 1978, Carver had W already crossed over into what he spoke of as the second of “two lives.” June 2, 1977 marked Carver’s “line of demarcation,” the day he entered into a new life without alcohol (Gentry and Stull 89). In these days of instability, Ford remembers that Carver “had inched his way out of shadows and into light, and he was as thankful, and as deter- mined to stay in the light—my light, your light, the world’s light—as any convert to a feasible religion” (73). Ford’s memory suggests that Carver was a convert, a changed man on a pilgrimage to recovery. However, while critics may recognize that “something” happened to Raymond Carver’s fiction, few are willing to associate Carver’s literary transformation with a spiritual conversion. This interpretive reluctance causes Carver’s vision of transcendence to be handled with suspicion, as spiritual imagery and confessional language is typically dismissed as an alcoholic’s restored hope in humanity rather than a possible encounter with “the other.”1 In contrast to the postmodern way of suspicion, Dennis Taylor advocates for an authentic engagement with spirituality in liter- ature. Taylor goes as far as suggesting that some texts in the western canon actually demand a religious interpretation; when this possibility is squelched, “what is left over is a nagging spiritual question” (125). -
UC Creative Writing Newsletter
Spring 2017 DIRECTOR’S NOTE BY LEAH STEWART CREATIVE This is my last note as director, as Rebecca Lindenberg will take over that position in the fall. We’re delighted that Rebecca, who joined us two years ago as a visiting assistant WRITING professor in poetry, will also become a permanent member of the faculty. Michael Griffith will be taking a well-deserved sabbatical after his five years as Director of Graduate Studies, CONTENTS and as of the fall I'll be department head. I've enjoyed DEPARTMENT NEWS directing the program, particularly curricular development; FACULTY NEWS we've just changed our Creative Writing major to a multi- ALUMNI NEWS genre approach, after years of requiring students to select a STUDENT NEWS genre. This has allowed us to create innovative classes like INCOMING STUDENTS Creative Writing and Research, Hybrid Forms, Comic Poetry and Prose, and so on, which we're looking forward to teaching—and inviting graduate students to teach—next year and beyond. In other news, it's been a pleasure to welcome Lisa Ampleman, a poet who graduated from our program in 2013, back to the department in her new capacity as managing editor of The Cincinnati Review. Nicola Mason's new venture, Acre Books, released its first publication, A Very Angry Baby, an anthology that includes work by Brock Clarke, Andrew Hudgins, and Julianna Baggott. Back in February, Cincinnati www.artsci.uc.edu/creativewriting Magazine wrote an article about our program, which you can read here. If you haven't yet taken a look at the Elliston Project—an audio archive of more than 700 recorded readings and lectures given at UC since 1951—you can do so here. -
The Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship 2016 Booklet
THE ADROIT JOURNAL SUMMER MENTORSHIP 2016 BOOKLET LEARN : COLLABORATE : GROW About the Program How do I apply? As a way of maintaining and extending our deep-rooted com- Applications for this year’s mentorship program consist of two mitment to emerging writers, The Adroit Journal’s Summer mandatory parts—a Writer’s Statement and a Writing Sample, with Mentorship Program aims to pair experienced writers with high the additional voluntary component of an academic transcript in school students (as of the current academic year) interested in .PDF form. The Writer’s Statement should detail the applicant’s learning more about the creative writing processes of drafting, specific interest in pursuing The Adroit Journal’s summer men- redrafting and editing. torship program. What is it about our program and mission that piques your interest? Why this workshop? How would you spend The program is free to all, and is entirely online. The 2016 pro- your time with us? We want to know. Aim for between 1-1.5 pages gram will cater to the literary genres of poetry, fiction, and double spaced, and don’t be afraid to be creative and original. We nonfiction.The aim of the mentorship program is not formalized like that. instruction, but rather an individualized, flexible, and often informal correspondence. It is our hope that mentees will feel comfortable While we of course suggest mentioning your experience and sharing work at their own leisure with their mentors and, ultimately, accomplishment with the writing and workshop processes, we will with each other. evaluate applications looking primarily for demonstrated passion and interest. -
The Afterlife of Raymond Carver: Authenticity, Neoliberalism and Influence
The Afterlife of Raymond Carver: Authenticity, Neoliberalism and Influence A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2017 Jonathan N P Pountney School of Arts, Languages and Cultures 2 Table of Contents Abstract 4 Declaration 5 Copyright Statement 6 Acknowledgements 7 Introduction 8 i. The Emergence of Neoliberalism 9 ii. Carver, Neoliberal Hegemony and Craftsmanship 13 iii. Theoretical Approaches to Carver’s Influence 25 iv. Gordon Lish and Tess Gallagher 31 Three Case Studies 36 i. The Transatlantic Political Convergence and Stuart Evers 36 ii. Diminished Class-Consciousness and Denis Johnson 43 iii. Transnational Adaptations and Ray Lawrence’s Jindabyne 47 iv. Raymond Carver’s Afterlife 49 Chapter One – ‘Carveresque Realism’: Raymond Carver and Jay McInerney 53 i. Early Years and Correspondence 53 ii. Vintage Contemporaries 1984 60 iii. Carver’s Realism, Minimalism and Literary Accuracy 68 iv. Carver and John Gardner 73 v. McInerney’s Early Fiction 79 vi. The Calloways: An Example of Carveresque Realism? 86 Chapter Two – ‘The Transpacific Partnership’: Raymond Carver and Haruki Murakami 101 i. Carver’s American Postwar Context 106 ii. Humiliation, Consumption and Idleness in Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? 108 iii. Murakami’s Japanese Postwar Context 115 iv. Humiliation, Consumption and Conformity in The Elephant Vanishes 120 v. Turning Points: The Impact of Life-Altering Events on Carver and Murakami 127 vi. Residual Spirituality in ‘All God’s Children Can Dance’ 135 vii. Residual Craft in ‘Kindling’ 138 3 viii. Epilogue: ‘The Projectile’ 142 Chapter Three – ‘Why Raymond Carver?’: The Equivocal Carver in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman 144 i. -
Raymond Carver in the Classroom
“Rubenstein’s book does just what a book like this should do: gets readers Raymond Carver in the Classroom excited about reading Carver and teachers excited about teaching him.” —John Gaughan, author of Reinventing English: Teaching in the Contact Zone Featuring biographical information, detailed discussion of specific short stories Raymond Carver in the Classroom and poems, critical analysis, and innovative activities for teaching literature and writing, Raymond Carver in the Classroom: “A Small, Good Thing” takes you into the world and work of Raymond Carver, the “father of minimalism.” Carver’s writing presents an honest and moving portrayal of modern American life, with a focus on a blue-collar culture. With his straightforward, stripped- “A Small, Good Thing” down style, Carver reaches readers of all levels, and his writing inspires thought- ful reflection on what it means to be a human being in contemporary times. This fourth volume in the NCTE High School Literature Series includes an array of activities and assignments that promote powerful student writing, allowing you to The NCTE High School Literature Series • Encourage visual learners by pairing Carver’s poetry and fiction with the study of the works of artists such as Edward Hopper and Maya Lin • Help students discover a unique approach to revision by studying Carver’s own writing process • Demystify poetry by having students read Carver’s and write their own, in- RUBENSTEIN cluding catalog poems and “LISTEN to Me” poems modeled after Carver’s • Explore point of view by examining -
AMERICAN LITERARY MINIMALISM by ROBERT CHARLES
AMERICAN LITERARY MINIMALISM by ROBERT CHARLES CLARK (Under the Direction of James Nagel) ABSTRACT American Literary Minimalism stands as an important yet misunderstood stylistic movement. It is an extension of aesthetics established by a diverse group of authors active in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that includes Amy Lowell, William Carlos Williams, and Ezra Pound. Works within the tradition reflect several qualities: the prose is “spare” and “clean”; important plot details are often omitted or left out; practitioners tend to excise material during the editing process; and stories tend to be about “common people” as opposed to the powerful and aristocratic. While these descriptors and the many others that have been posited over the years are in some ways helpful, the mode remains poorly defined. The core idea that differentiates American Minimalism from other movements is that prose and poetry should be extremely efficient, allusive, and implicative. The language in this type of fiction tends to be simple and direct. Narrators do not often use ornate adjectives and rarely offer effusive descriptions of scenery or extensive detail about characters’ backgrounds. Because authors tend to use few words, each is invested with a heightened sense of interpretive significance. Allusion and implication by omission are often employed as a means to compensate for limited exposition, to add depth to stories that on the surface may seem superficial or incomplete. Despite being scattered among eleven decades, American Minimalists share a common aesthetic. They were not so much enamored with the idea that “less is more” but that it is possible to write compact prose that still achieves depth of setting, characterization, and plot without including long passages of exposition. -
The Evacuation of Commodified Space in Raymond Carver's
The Raymond Carver Review 5/6 Abstract This essay examines Carver’s minimalist style as a response to postmodern culture. Taylor Johnston suggests that Carver’s spare prose has the effect of stripping away as many consumer artifacts as possible without jettisoning referentiality entirely. In this way, Carver’s stories clear the overpopulated, decorative space of both consumer culture and more canonical postmodern literatures. “Cathedral” exemplifies this operation in that it not only prunes brand names, but also allegorizes the utopian possibility of experience removed from commodification. The essay performs a close reading of this story in which blindness becomes a figure for the evacuation of consumer culture from lower-middle-class space. ‘Inside anything’: the Evacuation of Commodified Space in Raymond Carver’s ‘Cathedral’ Taylor Johnston In 1986 John Barth gave a cheeky account of the American minimalist movement “both praised and damned under such labels as ‘K-Mart realism,’ ‘hick chic,’ ‘Diet-Pepsi minimalism’ and ‘post- Vietnam, post-literary, postmodernist blue-collar neo-early-Hemingwayism’” (1). He provides the following list of its possible origins: Our national hangover from the Vietnam war. The more or less coincident energy crisis of 1973-76. The national decline in reading and writing skills . Along with this decline, an ever-dwindling readerly attention span . Together, with all of the above, a reaction on these authors’ part against the ironic, black-humorist “fabulism” and/or the (sometimes academic) intellectuality and/or the density, here byzantine, there baroque, of some of their immediate American literary antecedents . [and finally] The reaction against the all but inescapable hyperbole of American advertising, both commercial and political, with its high- tech manipulativeness and glamorous lies, as ubiquitous as and more polluted than the air we breathe.