Intro to Short FictionOr

“Why are we reading these stories?”

English 12

What is Fiction?

Fiction is made up stories (You might be able to argue that it is lies!)

On the other hand, fiction is a kind of artistic expression that asks the question “What if?” What if aliens invaded the earth? What if a bunch of hillbillies got rich and moved to Beverly

Hills? What if a math teacher found out that his brother is a heroin

addict?

Within a good piece of fiction there is a logic and truth that can be found.

“Truth” in fiction isn’t necessarily factual truth, instead the truth we find in fiction is the “truth of life”.

This kind of truth says “This is the way life is. This is what it is like to be human.”

Edgar Allen Poe once defined a “short story” as one that could be read in a hour or two.

What is fiction continued…

THE EXPERIENCE OF FICTION

• The purpose of communication is to:• express oneself

• to entertain others

• to inform others

• and to persuade others

• A short story can do all 4 of these.

The purpose of communication is to express oneself

The fact that fiction is “made up” gives the writer freedom to express him/herself in an infinite number of ways.

Writers of fiction can make the impossible possible, can manipulate time and space, and can create characters and situations to suit their needs.

The purpose of communication is to entertain others

• Like any piece of art, or any form of entertainment, a short story must grab us at an emotional level.

• Stories are made “entertaining” by utilizing:• intriguing plots• describing fun/horrible/likable or otherwise interesting characters• Settings that we care about, want to know more about, and can

immerse ourselves in• Language that is beautiful, descriptive, challenging, simple, rich, or

even disturbing

The purpose of communication is to inform others• We read textbooks, manuals, newspapers, maps and other

texts to “learn” something.• Short stories can be used to inform much in the same way.

• Short stories inform us how people can behave• In reading a story, we can recognize something about

ourselves and/or something about others• We may see in a story characters with a “closed mind”

(and if we recognize this, we are able to critically look at our own thinking), or see how characters suffer in certain situations (which may allow us to sympathize with others), or learn about something which we have never experienced in real life.

The purpose of communication is to PERSUADE OTHERS

Writers of short stories may tell us a story about how horribly someone is being treated, or about how our habits and beliefs have consequences.

In this way, literature can persuade us to change. Powerful stories have the ability to create a reaction

from the audience, and therefore can make a change “one reader at a time”.

Soooo…

In short, we read (and write) stories to express ourselves, to be entertained, to LEARN about ourselves and others, and to persuade others.

Seem like good reasons to me!