Short Story

Short Story

1 Plot/ Structure

  1. The importance of form
  2. How to make the short story interesting
  3. How to make the short story appear true
  4. How to give meaning to a short story
  5. The climax

2 Atmosphere

  1. The imaginary world of fiction
  2. Functions of atmosphere
  3. Some story types where atmosphere is important
  4. How atmosphere is created: some examples

3 Character

  1. Choosing characters
  2. Parameters to be observed in the choice of characters
  3. Developing the characters
  4. The ending
  5. First person narrative

4 Narration

  1. The Art of the Short Story
  2. The Russian and the French Short Storyโ€”Chekhov and Guy de Maupassant
  3. The Narrative Mode of Great Short Story Writers in English
  4. Summing Up

5 Appropriate Themes

  1. Ancient Indian Classics are a rich source of material
  2. Childrenโ€™s literature in India today
  3. Suitable themes for different age groups
  4. The question of โ€˜valuesโ€™ in childrenโ€™s literature
  5. Some essential features of childrenโ€™s stories
  6. Language and technique in childrenโ€™s stories
  7. Role of illustrations in childrenโ€™s books
  8. Script-writing for childrenโ€™s films

6 Fantasy

  1. What is fantasy?
  2. Origin of fantasy: historical background
  3. Impact of folklore and fairy tales on children
  4. Forms of fantasy
  5. Guidelines for new writers
  6. Treatment of fantasy
  7. Summing up

7 Transmission of Values

  1. Narrative, story, and plot
  2. The notion of ‘ending’: the ‘open-ended’ story
  3. Two forms of open-ended narrative
  4. Summing up
  5. Activities: aids to answers

8 Language and Illustration

  1. Choice of words
  2. Sentence structure
  3. Style and tone
  4. Dialogue in fiction

9 Suspense and Atmosphere

  1. The genesis of the detective story
  2. The detective
  3. The detectiveโ€™s companion
  4. All detectives tend to develop into types
  5. The essence of detective stories is suspense
  6. How suspense is created
  7. How suspense is sustained
  8. Suspense is really the construction of a logical chain
  9. Suspense through atmosphere
  10. Suspense through action

10 Choosing Characters

  1. Character development in detective stories
  2. Four main character types: the victim, the criminal, the detective, and the detectiveโ€™s companion
  3. The others, who set the story in reality
  4. Summing up

11 Dialogues

  1. No room for long dialogues in detective stories
  2. Dialogue is brutal, terse, and cynical in modern detective stories
  3. Dialogue is a means to an end
  4. Dialogue, handled carelessly, can ruin a story by giving away the clue
  5. Some limits on handling dialogue

12 Device of Multiple Clues

  1. Why We Enjoy Reading Detective Stories
  2. Early Detective Stories: Simple Clues
  3. Interpretation of Clues at the Heart of the Detectiveโ€™s Art
  4. The Model of Interpretation of Clues: Sherlock Holmes
  5. The Other Mode: Interpretation of Interaction Between Detective, People, Places, Events and Circumstances
  6. Real Clues and False Clues
  7. Summing Up

13 Reversal of traditional modes- Anti-Hero

  1. Some common features in traditional and anti-hero fiction
  2. Points of difference
  3. Technique of character presentation
  4. Types of anti-heroes
  5. Summing up

14 Anti-plot

  1. Plot and anti-plot: the question of form
  2. The writer’s perception of truth
  3. Fantasy in anti-plot
  4. Symbolism and allegory
  5. The absurd made plausible
  6. Summing up

15 Open-ended narrative

  1. Narrative, story, and plot
  2. The notion of ‘ending’: the ‘open-ended’ story
  3. Two forms of open-ended narrative
  4. Summing up

16 Innovations in style

  1. Recent trends in narrative styles
  2. Against portrayal of realism and event
  3. Against subject and theme
  4. Against overt meaning and epiphanic revelation
  5. Against interpretation and analysis
  6. Against legislation on scale/size