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For as long as I have been reading, I have always held particular appreciation for short stories. Nobody starts out reading novels; short stories have certainly contributed to my love of literature not for just their brevity but, lately, what they include within and because of that brevity. This class has cemented my view of the short story as a written art to be considered outside of the normal realm of literature. On the surface, short stories do not have the same complexity as novel length works, nevertheless they contain a depth of meaning often worth a novel’s length. Short stories can be the authors most pure expression of  thought. Referencing the outlook of short story writer A.E. Coppard, forcing an author to belabor his story across the length of a novel may muddy his artistic expression. He “cringed from the awful job of hacking out mere episodes into epic stature, draping the holes in them with bogus mysticism, factitious psychology, and the backchat of a paper hanger “(Shaw 2).

In this class, I was glad to have looked at the interaction of folklore with written literature. I have never been one to read fairy tales, so it was nice to broaden my horizons to an area of writing I would likely never have paid mind to on my own. I enjoyed analyzing “Yellow Woman” by Leslie Markon Silko as well as “White Tigers” by Maxxine Hong Kingston for how effectively they showed the relationship between folklore and the modern world. Kingstone uses the tale of the Chinese swordswoman to not only carry her through the anti-Chinese sentiment she faced in America, but also the misogyny she faced in her own culture. In “Yellow Woman”, Silko shows the intimacy that the cultural touchstones of folk tales can create. Though the narrator exists in the modern world with a family who will not understand the importance of the tale of the Yellow Woman, she represents still feeling connected to her cultural identity.

In addition to approaches to issues of culture and gender, I think it was also great to look at how this folklore changes over time. Literature is a discourse wherein the individual pieces need each other to communicate their message, just as “The Bloody Chamber” by Angela Carver needed Charles Perrault’s “Blue Beard” and vice versa. The interaction between these two stories in particular was also illustrative of the idea of remixing and the remediation of cultural material. This helps show how literature is in a constantly in a state of evolution and change, in lockstep with the developments of humanity.

In regards to fairy tales themselves, I can credit this class with helping me understand the structure and content that constitutes the definition of a fairy tale. I specifically liked Bruno Bettelheim’s analysis in the excerpt we read from Uses of Enchantment. Reading this helped me realize themes and commonalities that I encountered in experiencing fairy tales but never truly acknowledged.

As a whole, this class provided an enlightening reminder of the poignancy and literary power singular to short stories.

Shaw, Valerie. The Short Story. Routledge, 2013.

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Angela Carver adapted Perrault’s folk tale “Bluebeard”, elaborating upon and taking some creative liberties with the narrative. Essentially, they tell the same tale; an extravagantly wealthy, discomforting figure of high society courts a youthful woman and takes her in marriage. In both stories, he tests her trust by going on a six-week business trip before an early return to find she has gone into a forbidden room. This forbidden room, a hellish “enfer”, contains the bodies of his prior wives. His very surface generosity belies a murderous libertine in both stories. A marked difference between the two lies in how the stories handle the woman’s rescue. In Perrault’s 1697 text, her two brothers, one a musketeer and the other a dragoon while in Carver’s 1976 text the woman’s mother is the hero. Though I was rather surprised to learn that Carver had written this rather gothic text in the late 1970s, it might reflect the more modern status of woman compared Perrault’s time. Carver portrays the mother as a strong figure, stronger even than Marquis: “On her eighteenth birthday, my mother had disposed of a man-eating tiger that had ravaged the villages in the hills north of Hanoi. Now, without a moment's hesitation, she raised my father's gun, took aim and put a single, irreproachable bullet through my husband's head” (Carver 28). Could a strong female figure, vanquishing a high standing male and inheriting great wealth with her daughter, exist in 1690s literature or in literature of less distant times? Perhaps Carver was trying to counter the helplessness with which the female was portrayed in Perrault’s text.

Reflection

The comparison of “Bluebeard” and Angela Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber” was a great look at how classic folklore transitions and remains relevant in more modern times. Though not brought up in discussion, I think it’s important to consider how the “The Bloody Chamber” exists as a remix, or remediation of Bluebeard, pulling from the influences of gothic literature and hinting to modernity at the time of publication, combining these influences into a completely new work that is still able to effectively communicate the tale of “Bluebeard”. In remediating “Bluebeard”, Carver also put forth a more progressive interpretation of the issue of gender roles. In our discussion, we noticed how the women, particularly the mother, in Carver’s piece had a more active, and strong role in the story.

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“Yellow Woman” and “White Tigers” show how folklore/fairy tales offer touchstones to the tenants of the cultures they are products of. This cultural introspection of these stories help breaks down the issues and struggles readers of that culture might be experiencing. IN the traditional definition of a fairy tale as presented in Elizabeth Wanning Harries’ essay, “Twice Upon a Time”, these stories clearly combine elements of folklore with supernatural, but they also expand this definition to the context of time (Harries 5). These stories show how fairy tales evolve and what they can mean to the complex issues experienced by those cultures in the modern day. In “White Tigers”, Maxine Hong Kingston tells shapes the story from the mythic journey of a Chinese swordswoman before placing the story in the context of the modern world. The narrator uses this story as a tool for guiding herself and protecting her cultural identity, and her identity as a woman, in real world conflicts. She relates to the swordswoman, proclaiming “[t]he swordswoman and I are not so dissimilar” (Kingston 53). In “Yellow Woman” Silko takes a similar approach; in the last paragraph she cements her experience with Silva in the modern domesticity of her husband, Al, and how to make Jell-O. She decides to tell her family she was kidnapped, because her culture is something understandable to only those of her culture, creating an intimate understanding with a modern reader of that culture.

These stories are not ageless but instead put in the context of time to convey their meanings; do you think this is required for fairy tales to persist in the modern day?

Reflection

I think “Yellow Woman” by Leslie Markon Silko and “White Tigers” by Maxxine Hong Kingston offer unique and interesting insight into issues of cultural identity and preservation. These stores give a mutual accessibility for not only people of the cultures the stories discuss, but also those outside. By analyzing how these cultures interact with the modern world, they bring to surface issues specific to this day in age. Both authors use folklore, and explain the relationship this folklore has with the modern world. In “Yellow Woman”, Silko cements the folklore of the Yellow Woman in the modern world of Jell-O and screen doors; Kingston explains how the folklore inspires her in her struggles with Asian discrimination in the U.S.

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These stories represent the struggle of women in a male-dominated society. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s piece serves to represent this during the Jazz Age. It is implied by his story that women of the time played to a certain stereotype that painted women as delicate and indulgent to men. Despite this stereotype, Marjorie is exactly the opposite. Strong of will, brazen and sure of herself, she in fact uses this stereotype to get what she wants – that is to be “cut in”. She imposes her will on her cousin Bernice, coercing her into an awkward situation where Bernice is courting the interest of Warren, Marjorie’s boyfriend. Bernice shows herself strong and sure of herself to a degree beyond even Marjorie by getting her hair bobbed and butchering Marjorie’s.

In “Minutes of Glory” Beatrice exercises her defiance and self-determination, but, unlike Bernice, is tragically arrested of this in the end in a symbol of hopelessness in a male dominated society. Nyaguthu, idolized by Beatrice and a symbol of this defiance, weeps behind the bar counter during Beatrice’s arrest.

In reading these stories, I thought about how they might have been perceived during the times they were published, especially in the case of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Would people recognize the cultural introspection of a story like “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” written by a man in the materialistic excess of the Roaring Twenties?

Reflection

Our discussion of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Bernice Bobs her Hair and of Ngugi Wa Thiongo's "Minutes of Glory"revolved around the characters’ search for identity, and their search for equality as women in their respective societies and times. Both stories have female characters that, in their own form, break the mold of their society. Bernice eventually realizes the coercion of her cousin, Margaret, and the humiliating depersonalization and superficiality of Jazz Age flapper culture. Beatrice in “Minutes of Glory”, breaks the mold of subservience in a symbol of spiritual triumph. Having stolen the truck driver’s money, she buys nice clothes and dances in front of him. This a provocative and powerful gesture, much in the same vain as Beatrice’s brazen act of cutting Margaret’s hair and escaping home. I think both of these stories represent the oppressive standards society can place on the expression of femininity.

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Zora Neale Hurston take two different perspectives on domestic abuse. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman paints a picture of the rest cure, a roughly 19 th to early 20 th century treatment of neurasthenia. Neurasthenia was a broadly reaching diagnosis that umbrellas issues such as depression, anxiety, etc... For women, this treatment consisted of nearly complete intellectual and physical inactivity in bedrest as well as a fatty diet; milk seemed to be a major tenant of the rest cure diet (Beck). Perkins Gilman was subjected to the rest cure as she dealt with bouts of depression. It’s important to note that the treatment for neurasthenia in men included rigorous, stimulating activity. Perkins Gilman wrote the “The Yellow Wallpaper” to uncover the harmful misogyny of the rest cure. Clearly, it did not work for the narrator. She experienced hallucinations and in one instance even threatened to burn down the house. In the end she crawls around the floor over her husband’s unconscious body after tearing off the wallpaper.

Zora Neale Hurston looks at domestic abuse from the perspective of Southern African Americans. It’s interesting to contrast Delia Jones and Gilman’s narrator from a socioeconomic perspective. Delia is a poor African American; in order to sustain herself and her authoritarian husband she works tirelessly doing laundry for the community with not one day of rest. Contrast this with the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” who has the wealth of her husband, a doctor, to support her. Delia is forced by her husband to work hard while Gilman’s character is forced not to work at all. It seems both of these authors presented their own unique perspectives on feminist issues of the time, based upon their own backgrounds.

Reflection

“The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “Sweat” by Zora Neal Hurston both look at domestic abuse. In our discussion, we covered how both stories look at the problem of male dominance and how this abuse is justified by society. In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, Gilman speaks out against the rest cure. Through her story, Gilman is able to show the inherent illogic, ineffectuality, and damage done by the rest cure. She represents the rest cure as one of the many means to oppress women into domesticity. Hurston looks at similar themes but shows them as they effect poor African Americans in the 1920s.

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Junio Diaz and Doris May Lessing take two different cultural perspectives on the tumult of a dysfunctional relationship. Lessing shows the struggle of an upper-class, married British women suffering from depression and Diaz the brutal complexity of his narrator’s relationship with Magda. The only significant parallels I can really see between the two stories is that the husbands objectified their lovers to some degree thereby destroying their relationships. In the case of Susan’s husband, Matthew, he is somewhat casual about accepting affairs in marriage and even tries to make light of it with an offer for a foursome (Lessing 573). The narrator in “The Sun, the Moon, the Stars” seems to hold Magda to his double standard; assuming her forgiveness at his infidelity, even stating “Sure, I checked out other females, even danced with them when I went out, but I wasn’t keeping numbers or nothing” but at the same time growing deeply resentful at Magda when she is approached by other men or doesn’t want to be with him(Diaz 282). I wonder if the point of these stories is to show how affairs can permanently toxify relationships?

Reflection

“To Room Nineteen” and “The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars” represent the dysfunction in relationships created by miscommunication. Thinking back on these two stories in consideration with our class discussion, Lessing and Diaz showed how, though in very different representation, miscommunication can fundamentally poison relationships. In Lessig piece, a rift between Matthew and Susan permits Susan’s depression to fester, eventually leading her to suicide. In Diaz’s work, Magda and the narrator have different perceptions of their relationship; the narrator thinks he is going to recover the relationship after his own infidelities, but she instead is using him. Both of the stories lead to dead ends for the couples because of this miscommunication.