READING WORKSHOP PROGRAMME 2022-23

 READING WORKSHOP PROGRAMME 2022-2023

Mainly Short Stories

“‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, ‘it means just what

I choose it to mean—neither more nor less’ ”

(Source: “Poststructuralism. A very Short Introduction” by Catherine Belsey)

GENERAL OBJECTIVES

The focus of the programme for the academic course 2022-2023 will mainly embrace short fiction with a couple of exceptions that have sprung from former interests of attending members such as Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet, among others. Some of the short stories are part of the tapestry of a novel such as Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses, or Alice Munroe’s Too Much Happiness, so, in these cases, rather than unstrung pieces, the short stories constitute the tiles that will conform the whole mosaic of the narrative. The programme divides in three different sections that encompass writers from different geographical locations: American, Irish, British and Canadian.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, John Cheever, Philip K. Dick, Mary Robinette Kowal, Maggie O’Farrell and Alice Munroe conform the constellation of authors which will be part of the 2022-23 programme.

Some of the issues that the analysis of the short stories will prompt:

• Flannery O’Connor’s : the Southern Gothic, the grotesque, caricaturesque, small communities, religion, the South;

• William Faulkner: family sagas, racial issues, small communities, narrative technique, understanding the South;

• Ernest Hemingway: simple, direct, unadorned prose, journalistic style, autobiographical outpouring, mutilayered characters, the Iceberg Theory;

• John Cheever: “The Swimmer”: “ highly ironic inversion of a conventional elegiac theme, the athlete dying young,” (source) “Fantasy and ironic comedy, the life, manners, and morals of middle-class suburban America” (source);

• Philip K. Dick and Mary Robinette Kowal: “Alternate realities, illusory environments” (source);

• Maggie O’ Farrell: Agnes empowerment / gender issues / recreating the family life of William Shakespeare;

• Alice Munroe: “our Chekhov” (The New York Times).

The first session will be devoted to analyse some critical aspects of short story writing as a fictional genre (this will be a pervading aspect to be dealt with) as well as introductory biographical and contextual aspects of the first writer to be dealt with “Flannery O’Connor,” emblem of the Southern Gothic to which herself, Faulkner or Carson McCullers have been ascribed (Check here for source). She was influenced all her life by the Catholic community in which she was brought up. Her characters embody aspects of the grotesque and the bizarre. From here, sails will be hoisted to embark in a journey of authors, writers and countries that will offer grounds to indepth study regarding contextual, structural and thematic differences of the literary pieces in question.

ATTENDANCE

Who can enrol? Students of the EOI of Vigo that have a C level of English ( C1 / C2).

Newcomers please send an email to: asmfilo@gmail.com

VENUE

Room to be allotted soon.

TIME

Thursdays 19:30-21:30 / every week  1st Session: 22nd of September

Programme and Sequencing

American Writers

1. “The Complete Short Stories of Flannery O´Connor” (1947)

Selection of 4 stories. / “A Good Man is Hard to Find” / “The Artificial Nigger” / “The Displaced Person” / “Good Country People.” September / October

“When you can assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax and use more normal means of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision apparent by shock --to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling ... Flannery O’Connor: Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose

2. “Go Down, Moses” (1942) by William Faulkner. Seven interrelated short stories. November / December

“I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.” —William Faulkner, on receiving the Nobel Prize (source)

CHRISTMAS BREAK ( 23rd-th 8th January)

3. “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” (1936) by Ernest Hemingway. January

Hemingway’s characters and storylines are complex and multilayered. He was able to hide, within the dialogue of his characters, their personalities, quirks, and secrets.

4. “The Swimmer” (1964) by John Cheever. January

“There was no point in pretending that I had not fallen, for when we are stretched out in the dirt we must pick ourselves up and brush off our clothes. This then, in a sense, is what I did, reviewing my considered opinions on marriage, constancy, man's nature, and the importance of love. When I had picked up my possessions and repaired my appearance, I fell asleep."

SCIENCE FICTION

5. “The Minority Report” (1956) by Philip Kindred Dick. February

6. “We can Remember it for your Wholesale” (1966) by Philip Kindred Dick. February

7. “Evil Robot Monkey” (2008) and “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” (2012) by Mary Robinette Kowal. February

Irish Writers

8. “Hamnet” (2020) by Maggie O’Farrell. March / April

“Her novel Hamnet, based on Shakespeare's family was published in 2020. The novel reimagines the death of William Shakespeare's son Hamnet who died at a young age. The novel focuses on his mother, giving her the power by not mentioning Shakespeare.”

Canadian Writers

7. “Too Much Happiness” (2009) by Alice Munroe. Selection of Short Stories. April / May

“These are beguiling, provocative stories about manipulative men and the women who outwit them, about destructive marriages and curdled friendships, about mothers and sons, about moments which change or haunt a life. Alice Munro’s stories surprise and delight, turning lives into art, expanding our world and shedding light on the strange workings of the human heart”

Most of the readings can be found on this link : Reading Workshop 22_23

Teacher: Ana María Sánchez Mosquera

Vigo, 6 de Setembro de 2022