Job Discussion Forums

[frigginhippie]

Hi people,

I teach the reading courses to English majors at my university. Our book is composed of two- to six-page excerpts from larger, famous works. It kills me that the students never really get to read a GOOD story cover to cover. We obviously don't have time for a novel, but I'd like to give them a good, complete, interesting short story. Here's what I'm looking for:

-something around 30pgs (flexible)
-of some significance to English Literature (ie. something we might have been required to read in middle or highschool)
-figurative language/symbolism, or a recurring theme
-humor if possible (helps with the class)
-love, action and science (most popular themes with the students)
-if possible, something NOT in the 1st person. Our textbook is all 1st person narratives and essays. Gets a bit old.

Can you all think of a story that meets some or most of these criteria? Obviously it's difficult to find a story with ALL of these, but anything you suggest would be greatly appreciated!

(P.S. - please mention the name of the story. I asked some friends and they gave wonderfully vague answers like "something by Mark Twain" Neither they nor I have read all his stories, so their help was sorta useless )

[Jolly]

[ymmv]

You might want to try The Little Prince. It comes in at a little over 100 pages but the pages are small. You can find it in most foreign bookstores here in an English/Chinese version. (Chinese name: 小王子 - Xiao Wang Zi)

I don't know what level or background of students you teach. I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, but I've used it in college extensive reading classes for intermediate-level English majors (TEM 4- for exactly the same reasons you cite.

I broke it into 2 or 3 chapter chunks for each class. For the first 70 minutes of class we did the assigned texts and the last 30 minutes we broke, and did the Little Prince. College students in non-spoken English type classes tend to have a firmer expectation that the assigned text be somewhat adhered to - even if they find it "boring". (Spoken English classes have more leeway on this.) So I chose to "supplement" the assigned text with chunks of the Little Prince. 70-30 seems to be an acceptable ratio in many aspects of Chinese life. (cf. Mao's life)

Many of your students will probably know The Little Prince and have read it already, albeit, the translated version. If they read it in Chinese, they will have missed 95% of the content. They will think it is a children's story, but there is so much more in the story.

(Word up: If you decide to use it, give them only the English version. Don't let them use the Chinese version as a "cheat".)

Even though the English version is actually a translation of the original French version, there are recurring English phrases the author/narrator uses for impact (eg. "matters of consequence", "but the Little Prine made no reply"), which impact may be lost in a straight, dry Chinese translation.

It meets all OP's criteria, save that it is written in the 1st person narrative form. But the students won't even notice as they will be focused on the adventures of the Little Prince (as revelaed to the "author") as he, the Little Prince, wanders the universe in search of.....what?

You do have to walk the students through some of the content because they sometimes can't get their minds around the idea of, say, a Little Prince landing on various asteroid/planets and meeting up with various characters who symbolize all that is right and wrong in the world.

It has recurring themes which make it perfect for extended reading across several weeks of classes and it even lends itself well to use as a source for exam questions.

A Very Brief Teaching Guide:
The three main points the author and the Little Prince (and your students) come to learn:
1. It is only with the heart that one sees rightly.
2. What is important is invisible to the eye.
3. It is the time you have spent on your rose that makes it so important.

Gawd, this is starting to sound like a CMM post so I'll quit here. (No offense CMM-your style is unique and I'll leave that to you.)

But I'll just add that my reading students enjoyed the respite from the assigned text. They audibly sighed relief and affirmance when I would say, "Ok, enough of that? Next chapter of 'Little Prince'?"

As always, YMMV

[NorbertRadd]

Why not Ray Carver? Hemingway's got loads of shorts--"Hills Like White Elephants" and his sentences are good. I bought my copy of Winesburg, Ohio in Shanghai.

[Zero Hero]

Nice topic.

Though it is a tad longer than you ideally wanted, I would have to suggest 'Of Mice and Men' by Steinbeck. It fits the bill in all other regards.

[Norman Bethune]

Sheer crap in my opinion...but a book which meets all of your requirements is "Johnathan Livingston Seagull" by Richard Bach.

When it was first published, and even to this day, some consider it great literature. It is short. Easy to read. Some high schools have it on their reading lists. It is full of figurative and symbolic language.

But it is sheer crap. One of the first new age pieces of Fiction from the ME Decade.

Check out:

http://www.crookedbush.com/cgi-bin/bookviewer.pl?bookname=jonathon_livingston_seagull

[ymmv]

[woza17]

What about Animal Farm. You can buy it it China, Chinese and English and it is also on DVD. I have never taught it but I have lent it to students and they couldn't put it down.
Cheers

[Roger]

Genuine short stories may be a little too hard for CHinese kids to digest - they often require a profound grounding in Western thought and philosophy. Short stories were rather popular in Britain in the early 20th century but have gone out of public favour by now. The writers that dominated that genre were Englishmen travelling from one colony to another.

ANIMAL FARM or 1984 are off limits to Chinese, Carol!

I also would recommend John Steinbeck's works: The Wayward Bus, The Red Pony, to mention but two relatively short books (but, evidently, longer than 30 pages).
Then again, who says the whole class must read identical parts in the same novel? Why not have groups of students read only segments of the novel?

If you want to buy collections of short stories, perhaps Johnny Lu can oblige; visit his website
www.findbookshere.com
He will send the selected title to you at the price indicated in his list; postage is included. Payment is easy to make. He has hundreds of titles available. All second-hand.

[frigginhippie]

Hi people,

Thanks for all the great suggestions. Keep 'em coming. I'll check out the shorts you've mentioned, though 100 pages is a bit long, considering we usually cover 10/week. "Hills like White Elephants" is too short. I'm looking for about 3 weeks of non-textbook reading. So 20-40pgs. Fifty if not too difficult, but difficult is better

The Little Prince would be great, if I didn't think many have already read the Chinese version, which you say is translated as a children's story (translation is a tricky art, no?). But I'll ask the students.

Animal Farm might be risking my job

to Jolly (2nd post): I can't open your dorothymcfalls link. Can anyone else?

To answer your comments: my students are in their 3rd-of-4yr or 4th-of-5yr Bachelor's Degree equivalent English major program. I think they all have passed the TEM4, or will pass this year. The stuff we read in class are excerpts from (for ex.) James Joyce, Jack London, Virginia Woolf, Mark Twain, Sir Francis Bacon (though he was a bit over their heads). They can get most stories not rooted in outdated or uncommon language, and have been asking for "a good story" for a while now.

Thanks again!
-fh

[cimarch]

I heartily recommend Conan Doyle. Most of the Holmes cases are short enough and riveting reading if they can handle the slightly out-dated terms. I have leant my copies to Chinese friends in the past and they all loved them, although some terms did require history lessons/explanations.

[Babala]

What about some Greek myths? The length would be about what you are looking for and they cover love, action, killing.. I have taught a few to students before and they really enjoyed them.

[brsmith15]

Get a copy of Aesop's fables: Very short stories, non-political, and all with a moral. For example, "The Fox and the Grapes:" ends with, "Any fool can despise what he can't get." The Dog in the Manger might make a strong point with Chinese as many adults behave just that way.

For more advanced students, try Bach's "Illusions: Reflections of a Reluctant Messiah." I've used it and made the point we're all reluctant messiahs and anyone can be a "messiah" or messenger.

[no_exit]

If you can get your hands on a copy of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, it is full of well written, but quite comprehensible short stories about the Vietnam war. I shared some of the stories with my English majors in the past, and they really enjoyed them. They have the action of war stories, but are very thoughtfully written and really can provoke some good discussions about wars, fighting for one's country, and American history/culture. The book has been a favorite of mine since I read it as an undergrad, and I think its works well in the classroom.

[woza17]

Hang on, Animal Farm is available in all the major books stores in China. It is certainly not banned. Anyway wasn't Orwell refering to Stalinist Russia?