World Literature through Short Stories

"Patriotism" by Yukio Mishima (Japanese) Not found online, but ask for paper copy.

Things go wrong in an attempted coup. 

Writing Choice 1: Write an essay discussing the roles and relationships between man and woman in Japanese culture as presenting in the story.  .

Writing Choice 2: Write an essay discussing traditional morality and modernity in pre-World War II Japan as presenting in the story. 

Writing Choice 2: Write an essay discussing the dilemma between friendship and duty as presenting in the story. 

"The Man who was almost a Man" by Richard Wright (American)

An impoverished young man's life takes a sharp turn when he gets a gun. 

"Study Guide". 
Ali Nihat Eken Blog
Mitrevski, George.  "
Study Guide".  Auburn University.   

Contains dialect.  Uses the N-word. 

Writing Choice 1: Write an essay discussing the gun as a symbol.   

Writing Choice 2: Write an essay discussing the story as a portrayal of White oppression of African-Americans. 

Writing Choice 3: Write an essay discussing "The Man" as an initiation or rite-of-passage story. 

Writing Choice 4: Write an essay discussing the irony of Dave's choices in "The Man Who was Almost a Man" 

"The Grave" by Katherine Anne Porter

The graves are empty, and the children play there, and hunt...

Writing Choice 1:   Write an essay discussing "The Grave" as an initiation or rite-of-passage story.

Writing Choice 2:  Write an essay discussing the use of symbols in "The Grave".

"Love: Three Pages from a Sportsman's Notebook" by Guy De Maupassant (French) 5  1/2 pgs

A hunter goes on a trip in which he learns something he didn't expect. 

Writing Choice 1: Present a case interpreting what the narrator learned about sportsmanship and humanity. 

Writing Choice 2: w

"The Library of Babel" by Jorgé Luis Borges (Argentinean) 8 pgs

A bizarre, fantastical world consisting of only an endless library

Writing Choice 1: Write an essay discussing the use of symbols in "The Library of Babel". .

Writing Choice 2: Write an essay discussing the use of symbols in "The Library of Babel". .

"The Ring" by Isak Dinesen  pg 1070, Literature Text, Holt, Rinehart, Winston Series, Sixth Course (Purple cover)

A desperate man, a naïve woman

Writing Choice 1: Write an essay discussing "In the Shadow of War" as an initiation or rite-of-passage story.

Writing Choice 2: Write an essay discussing the use of symbols in "In the Shadow of War".

"Lost in the Fun House" by John Barth

Advanced students only

Need help?

Writing Choice 1:

Writing Choice 2:

Other Stories for Term Papers:

"Bartleby, the Scrivener" by Herman Melville (American) 8 pgs
"The Overcoat" by Nikolai Gogol (Russian) 23 pgs
"The Secret Sharer" by Joseph Conrad (Polish, writing in English)
"The Blue Hotel" by Stephen Crane
"
Nine Lives" by Ursula K. Le Guin
"Barn Burning" by William Faulkner
"Death of Ivan Ilych" by Leo Tolstoy (Russian) 44 pgs


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