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What are we doing here?
As I warned you in the course description, this course will be my first academic exposure to literature, aside from a very recent participation in BOLLI's New Yorker Fiction Salon. So I really don't know for sure what I'm doing, but I have some ideas. And more importantly, I welcome your ideas on how to think about and analyze Mitchell's stories.
I talked to Aaron Goldberg about how to analyze fictional short stories and he referred to the classic quote by William Trevor:
If the novel is like an intricate Renaissance painting, the short story is an impressionist painting. It should be an explosion of truth. Its strength lies in what it leaves out just as much as what it puts in, if not more. It is concerned with the total exclusion of meaninglessness. Life, on the other hand, is meaningless most of the time. The novel imitates life, where the short story is bony, and cannot wander. It is essential art.
So part of our discussion will be about the essential truths communicated by the story.
Mitchell's stories, however are not (for the most part) fiction. They are creative non-fiction, or literary journalism. They are mostly stories of unique people, using their own words, together with vivid descriptions of them and their environs. Mitchell excels at letting people tell their own stories without judgement, with close observation of details, wry humor and often an elegiac style.
So how are we to understand these stories?
They have no plot, but they do have structure.
The subjects are developed like characters in a short story.
There are recurrent themes of community, history, mortality, and the meaning of life.
Mitchell uses descriptive settings and atmosphere to set his characters in a sense of place in New York City in the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's.
Mitchell uses evocative language, lists, epiphanies and humor as literary techniques.
Many of the stories have reflections on community, social distinctions and social relationships.
When you read these stories, read them once for an overview, and then again for a detailed look at his writing. On the second time through, mark the sections or phrases that hit your emotions, be it humor, drama, pathos or just a beautiful phrase. Bring them to class to share and we'll discuss how Mitchell stirs those emotions in us and what it is about our backgrounds that creates that emotional resonance.
In addition, think about the essential truth of the story:
Why did Mitchell choose this person or place? What do you think was the message that he was trying to communicate?
What do we think it was about Mitchell's personality and background that made him want to convey those messages?
I'm sure you will also have many more ideas to share. If it is important to you, it is important to us as a class, and we will welcome all of your observations and comments.
Please read the Wikipedia article on creative nonfiction to frame some of the issues we'll be dealing with:
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