British Literature.. short stories

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

I'm doing a Brit Lit class for our co-op. We only have about 10 weeks and I'd like to get to several works of fiction. Each student is choosing a novel to read on their own, but I'd like to go over some literary elements with short stories.

 

I've been so busy with homeschooling today that my brain is fried for the day. I can't think of a single author to 'Google' at the moment.

 

Can someone please help me with the names of some British authors and/or some good short stories to include?

 

Oh, I just thought of Dickens! My brain isn't completey mush yet! LOL

 

Please help! I need to give the first story assignment tomorrow at 9 am!

Thanks!

[Laura Corin]

Saki wrote wonderful short stories. How about Conan Doyle too? LL7 uses Rikki Tikki Tavi, by Kipling.

 

Laura

[Faithr]

How about a Canterbury Tale by Chaucer, then a Shakespeare play, A Christmas Carol by Dickens, you could have fun reading a Sherlock Holmes story and maybe wind up with Animal Farm by Orwell. I'd sprinkle in some poetry too, a sonnet or two, some Romantics like Coleridge or Wordsworth, Tennyson, Kipling, A.A. Milne (I love Winnie the Pooh!, Yeats.

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

I've already got some of these in my plans. We did sonnets by Shakespeare last week. Tomorrow we'll look at some poetry in the KJV of Bible and some poetry by Blake and Tenneyson. I want to "watch" some Shakespeare on DVD for a lesson or two. Two class periods will be oral book reports so that leaves about 4 or 5 lessons for short stories.

 

Any British short stories that you think would be a MUST???

 

Thanks again for all replies!

[HollyinNNV]

I like

Graham Greene's "A Shocking Accident"

*O'Connor's "My Oedipus Complex"

Warner's "The Phoenix"

***Lawrence's "Tickets Please"

*Kipling's "Mary Postgate"

Hardy's "The Withered Arm"

Mansfield's "The Doll's House"

 

I've starred the stories I'm most looking forward to discussing in groups. Do not miss "Tickets, Please!" There is a wealth of discussion with this short story!!!!!!! When I taught Am Lit my students were transfixed by Yellow Wallpaper. I think "Ticket, Please!" will create the same reaction.

Holly

[Faithr]

You know what I would do? I'd make it fun and have a mystery theme to the short stories. You could do The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde, An A. Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes story, A Father Brown story by G. K. Chesterton and then a Peter Wimsey story by Dorothy L. Sayers. If you wanted another one, which wouldn't exactly be a mystery but creates an incredible sense of foreboding and suspense, you could read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

 

They are all brilliant writers and you could focus on their different writing styles and how they craft their mystery.

 

I love Graham Greene and Frank O'Connor and Hardy is pretty good, but I would never, ever force even my worst enemy to read D H. Lawrence (I always felt slightly suicidal after reading him, LOL!).

[HollyinNNV]

but I would never, ever force even my worst enemy to read D H. Lawrence (I always felt slightly suicidal after reading him, LOL!).

 

For the most part, I agree. Lawrence isn't an author I go looking to include in my personal reading, nor my literature classes. However, this one particular short story is a thought-provoking, excellent story. I can't wait to teach it.

Holly

[Pam L in Mid Tenn]

THANK YOU, THANK YOU , THANK YOU!!!!

 

I'm going to get email addresses and send out the assignment after class today!

 

:grouphug:

[plimsoll]

You may also want to look at Dubliners, a book of short stories by James Joyce.