STORIES IN OUR LIVES: The Ways and Whys of Narrative Presented by Gary Draper Spring 2017 This series will examine the important roles played by narrative in entertainment, in literature and the other arts, and in our lives. We will look at a broad range of story forms, with consideration of their histories and their effects. Why do we tell stories? How do we tell them, and what difference does that make? And when we read them or listen to them or watch them, what are we looking for? INTRODUCTION The Reader’s Bill of Rights 1. The right to not read 2. The right to skip pages 3. The right to not finish a book 4, The right to re-read 5. The right to read anything 6. The right to escapism 7. The right to read anywhere 8. The right to browse 9. The right to read out loud 10. The right to not defend your tastes --Daniel Pennac, Better Than Life. “I’m forced to say that it seems very unsatisfying to me, and simply no story at all, if the ending is to be left so far in the air,” a New Yorker editor wrote in an internal memo about Mavis Gallant’s 1961 story “Two Questions.” “Seems to me that something should be completed, or it’s just a long sketch. It’s like life, and not—to me—like fiction.” William Maxwell, Gallant’s editor, replied, “The older I get the more grateful I am not to be told how everything comes out.” —Deborah Treisman, “Mavis Gallant,” New Yorker, March 3, 2014. Thus I rediscovered what writers have always known (and have told us again and again): books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told. —Umberto Eco, Postscript to The Name of the Rose Every tiny detail of your experience between birth and death would require an infinite amount of time to be exhaustively explained. Thus, to give me an idea of who you are— to ‘tell me the story of your life’—not only do you need to forget millions of things, you need to omit other millions. Of necessity, you will select the events you deem the most salient, relevant, or important, and organize them into narratives. In other words, very innocently you will spin tales. Using the same techniques as professional novelists, all of us create the novels of our lives. --Nancy Huston, The Tale Tellers The modern philosopher Daniel Dennett, whose ideas have been shaped in part by the discoveries of cognitive neuroscience, echoes Schopenhauer when he suggests we think of our conscious self as a virtuoso novelist, engaged in drafting and redrafting a story in which we are the central protagonist—the ‘chief fictional character’. -- Ian Leslie, Born Liars She breaks the silence by saying that it’s not healthy to live life as a succession of isolated little cool moments. “Either our lives become stories, or there’s just no way to get through them.” -- Douglas Coupland, Generation X There is a story, always ahead of you. Barely existing. Only gradually do you attach yourself to it and feed it. You discover the carapace that will contain and test your character. You find in this way the path of your life. --Michael Ondaatje, Cat’s Table March 21 Connecting with stories: How we start, Why they matter I. Introduction – How stories matter, and why From our earliest years, stories are part of how we understand ourselves and the world around us. We’ll look at the enormous varieties of ways stories touch our lives. II. Narratives in Literature 1: Short Stories Since the nineteenth century, the short story has been an important literary form of narrative. Given the speed of life in the 21st century, it's a more appealing form than ever: we'll look at some of the starting points, and some of the current versions of the short story. Books about narrative H. Porter Abbott. The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. Cambridge, 2002. Robert Fulford. The Triumph of Narrative: Storytelling in the Age of Mass Culture. Toronto, 1999. Nancy Huston. The Tale-Tellers. Toronto, 2008 Michael White. Maps of Narrative Practice. New York, 2007. Books about reading, especially the pleasures of reading Robert Adams. A Love of Reading: Reviews of Contemporary Fiction. Toronto, 2001. Robert Alter. The Pleasures of Reading in an Ideological Age. New York, 1989. Anne Fadiman. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader. Toronto, 1998. Nick Hornby. The Complete Polysyllabic Spree. London, 2006. Alberto Manguel. A Reading Diary. Toronto, 2004. ________. The Library at Night. Toronto, 2006. Daniel Pennac. Better Than Life. trans. David Homel. Toronto, 1994. Francine Prose. Reading Like a Writer. Toronto, 2006. Joe Queenan. One for the Books. Toronto, 2012. Books about fiction Wayne C. Booth. The Rhetoric of Fiction. Chicago, 1961. James Woods. How Fiction Works. New York, 2008. Fiction that reflects on narrative Alan Bennett. The Uncommon Reader. London, 2007. Italo Calvino. If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler. New York, 1981. Yann Martel. Life of Pi. Toronto, 2001. Salman Rushdie. Haroun and the Sea of Stories. London, 1990. Bibliotherapy Della Berthoud & Susan Elderkin. The Novel Cure. Toronto, 2013. Joseph Gold. Read for Your Life: Literature as a Life Support System. Markham, Ont., 1990. Will Schwale. Books for Living. New York, 2017 A somewhat personal list of fine short stories Sir Walter Scott. “The Two Drovers.” Chronicles of the Cannongate. 2003. Edgar Allan Poe. “The Tell-Tale Heart.” The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. 1938. Guy de Maupassant. “The Jewels.” Selected Short Stories. 1971. Joseph Conrad. “The Secret Sharer.” Selected Short Stories. 1998. Anton Chekhov. “The Lady with the Pet Dog.” Selected Short Stories. 1960. Rudyard Kipling. “The Man Who Would Be King.” Kipling: A Selection of His Stories and Poems. 1956. Somerset Maugham. “An Official Position.” The Oxford Book of Short Stories. 1981. James Joyce. “The Dead.” Dubliners. Many editions. Katherine Mansfield. “The Doll’s House.” The Short Stories of Katherine Mansfield. 1937. D. H. Lawrence. “The Rocking-Horse Winner.” The Best Short Stories of the Modern Age. 1962. William Faulkner. “That Evening Sun.” The Best American Short Stories of the Century. 2000. Jorge Luis Borges. “The Library of Babel.” Ficciones. 1962. Ernest Hemingway. “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.” The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. 1953. V. S. Pritchett. “The Camberwell Beauty.” Collected Stories. 1982. Morley Callaghan. “All the Years of Her Life.” Morley Callaghan’s Stories. 1959 Frank O’Connor. “Judas.” Collected Stories. 1981. John Cheever. “The Swimmer.” The Stories of John Cheever. 1978. Mavis Gallant. “My Heart Is Broken.” The Collected Stories of Mavis Gallant. 1996. William Trevor. “Cheating at Canasta.” Selected Stories. 2010. Chinua Achebe. “Civil Peace.” Girls at War and Other Stories. 1972. Alice Munro. “Meneseteung.” Friend of My Youth. 1990. John Updike. “Your Lover Just Called.” Too Far to Go. 1979. Rudy Wiebe. “Where is the Voice Coming From?” Where is the Voice Coming From? 1974. Andre Dubus. “A Father’s Story.” The Times Are Never So Bad. 1986. Alistair MacLeod. “The Lost Salt Gift of Blood.” The Lost Salt Gift of Blood. 1976 Isabel Allende. “Clarisa.” The Stories of Eva Luna. 1991. Isabel Huggan. “End of the Empire.” You Never Know. 1993. Thomas King. “ A Coyote Columbus Story.” One Good Story, That One. 1993. Tim O’Brien. “The Things They Carried.” The Things They Carried. 1990. Amy Bloom. “The Story.” A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You. 2000. Lorrie Moore. “How to Talk to Your Mother (Notes).” Self-Help. 1985. John Gould. “Two Things Together.” Kilter: 55 Fictions. 2003. Michael Crummey. “Bread.” Hard Light. 1998. Annabel Lyon. “Song.” Oxygen. 2000. Carrie Snyder. “Rat” The Juliet Stories. 2012 Some anthologies The Best American Short Stories of the Century. Ed. Updike & Kenison. New York, 2000. The Best Short Stories of the Modern Age. Ed. Douglas Angus. New York, 1962. Canadian Short Stories. Ed. Russell Brown & Donna Bennett. Toronto, 2005. Canadian Short Stories [series 1-5]. Ed. Robert Weaver. Toronto, 1960-1991. Contemporary Fiction: 50 Short Stories since 1970. Ed. Williford & Martone. New York, 1999. The Journey Prize Anthology. Toronto, 1989— The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. Ed. Joyce Carol Oates. New York, 1994. The Oxford Book of English Short Stories. Ed. A. S. Byatt. New York, 2003. The Oxford Book of Short Stories. Ed. V. S. Pritchett. Oxford, 1981. The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories. Ed. Tobias Wolff. New York, 1993. The World of the Short Story: A 20th Century Collection. Ed. Clifton Fadiman. Boston, 1986. March 28 Narratives in Literature 2: The Novel In western literature, the novel has been, for several centuries, the single most important literary source of narrative. We'll discuss some of the variations on the form, from its beginnings to the present. A highly personal—perhaps even eccentric—list of splendid novels Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe. 1719. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver’s Travels. 1726. Henry Fielding. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. 1749. Laurence Sterne. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. 1769. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice. 1813. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus. 1818. James Fenimore Cooper. The Last of the Mohicans. 1826. Charlotte Brontë. Jane Eyre. 1847. Emily Brontë. Wuthering Heights. 1847. Herman Melville. Moby Dick. 1851 Gustave Flaubert. Madame Bovary. 1856. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations. 1861 Fyodor Dostoevsky. Crime and Punishment. 1866. Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace. 1869. George Eliot. Middlemarch. 1874. Robert Louis Stevenson. Treasure Island. 1883. Mark Twain. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. 1884. Thomas Hardy. The Mayor of Casterbridge.