THE SHORT STORY GENRE IN THE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE WORKS OF WESTERN LITERARY SCHOLARS OF THE 20TH —21ST CENTURIES

The paper is focused on the perception of the short story genre in the western literary theory of the 20th —21st centuries. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the term 'short story' was a neologism, and its appearance indicated the rethinking of established literary forms. This process led to the development of new literary theories. The works of Brander Matthews (“The Philosophy of the Short Story”, 1901) and Frank O’Connor (“The Lonely Voice”, 1962), prominent writers and literary scholars of the 20th century, established academic short story studies in the English-speaking countries. Charles E. May, Susan Lohafer, Mary Rohrberger, Austin Wright, Ian Reid, Clare Hanson, Florence Goyet, Hanna Meretoja, whose major publications are also within the scope of the paper, provided further investigation of numerous issues of the short story genre and other types of short fiction. The works of the mentioned scholars are widely known and serve as a basis for academic courses and as an introduction to the short story theory. Nevertheless, they are rarely considered as one of the possible theoretical perspectives in the relevant Ukrainian research works on a short story, and it gives a reason for a closer look at them. Due to rising attention to the short literary forms, involving different theoretical frames might be beneficial to the development of the discourse. The paper describes the key issues of modern discussions concerning the distinctive features of the short story, its scope, definitions, establishment as an independent genre, and meaning in axiological and ontological contexts. The issue is explored by comparing different theoretical experiences with the use of comparative and discursive analysis.

Notes From the Field (From the Desk): To Hold

The last seminar of my “Introduction to Literary Theories” course in the fall semester of 2020 involved really difficult material on gender and race; it was exposing; none of the students had their cameras on. I was nearly in tears. Kept composure. We had been navigating well through the semester, with this and the other first-year module on poetry—subjects adjacent to theatre as a result of my situation within a department of English literature. This semester, I've been more bold, gently asking students to turn cameras on; I remember, though, always, Owen Parry's articulation of audience participation at the start of a Zoom event for the Welsh National Theatre. Some people hang back; some people are highly present (front-row types—I was always one of those); but all of this is good.1 I've been relaxing my need to “see” everyone out there. As a committed lecturer—a relapsed performer who has found solace in lecture stages—I'm always keen to read the room, normally; to see body posture, faces, engagement or puzzlement, and to respond to this; everything nonverbal that goes on. I was devastated, unsurprised, at the end of a conversation with a colleague on the development of what may become a major “Creative Hub,” to hear that our lecture halls might be replaced with sort of multifunction rooms, as if movable chairs meant we could suddenly be free. I think not enough is understood of the theatre of a lecture hall—the theatricality, the performativity, of what goes on—ways this is live, deeply so; ways students are not “passive” at all listening. That we don't need to go to “participatory art” in order to find ourselves within an ethical, social, committed space together; everything of that sort is lost with screens, or nearly. The sentiment of speaking out into a void.

A Judaism of Ethics in a Post-Holocaust World: The Interplay of Literature and Theology in Cynthia Ozick's Messiah of Stockholm

This article suggests that bringing Jewish literature and Jewish thought into conversation can deepen our understanding of each. As an illustration of this interdisciplinary methodology, I offer a reading of Cynthia Ozick's 1987 Messiah of Stockholm. I claim that Ozick has embedded an argument about the relationship of post-Holocaust Jewry to the past into the literary features of her novel. Her argument draws in particular upon Leo Baeck's account of Judaism as focused on the present and future in contrast to the worshipful approach to the past characteristic of other religions. At the same time, I offer a more nuanced take on the fear of idolatry so often noted in analyses of Ozick's work and situate that fear in relationship to the literary theories of her predecessor Bruno Schulz, who plays a key role in the novel, and her contemporary Harold Bloom.

Teaching Literature/Studying Literature in Literary Pedagogy and Literary Theory

Literary studies, in its two sides: teaching literature and studying literature, have suffered from a split in the profession between literary pedagogy and literary theories. A survey of the experience of some famous scholars who have tackled this issue in their writings is conducted to pinpoint the neglect in the part of people specialized in literary studies of the practical side of their work. Two points of convergence between literary pedagogy and literary theory are discussed. The first one presented two cases in which literary pedagogy was highly influenced by the ideas of two major shifts in critical theory: the formalist tendency of New Criticism and the reader-oriented tendency of the reader response approach. The second one discussed the efforts of the American educationalist and theorist Louise Rosenblatt in providing a theory of reading literary works in the light of what takes place in literature classrooms. The conclusions derived from this discussion lead to recommendations concerning the importance of making teaching of literature one of the academic interests and student preparation in departments of literature.

Metafunctions in the Thirukkural: A Systemic Functional Linguistics Analysis

‘Thirukkural’ written by Thiruvalluvar, is the most well-known and highly regarded work in the history of Tamil literature. Also, it is well known for its particular structure and wording. It is a distinctive and highly appealing work. Thirukkural has been studied approaching different literary theories. This paper tries to analyse Thirukkural based on the functional method of M. A. K. Halliday, his Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Here, one chapter – Education - of 133 chapters of the Thirukkural is analyzed using Systemic Functional Linguistic framework to achieve functional groupings of the writer’s linguistic choices in order to express the meanings and find out how functional features contribute to making the poem potentially. The linguistic data collected from the Thirukkural were analyzed by using the functional analysis method. Consequently, how interpersonal relationships are created within texts, how information is organized in texts and how the ideological positions of writer are implanted in texts were shown and interpreted.

Ecocriticsm as the Development of Teaching Materials in Literary Theories and Appreciation Courses

Eco Criticism or known as Literary Ecology which was popularized by Greg Gerrad has become a rare scientific discourse if it synergizes with the Indonesian character of education which is one of the educational pillars of the ministry of education. The resonance of these two scientific clumps between environment and literature to be the main topic promoted to realize the value of character education no 16 which is concerned about environment. To achieve this goal, this research using research and development by Plomp in order to form a form of book materials of Eco criticism as applied literary in education. The results obtained in the application of the ecological characteristics of literature which include the main elements, namely Pollution, Position, Pastoral, Wilderness, Apocalypse, Dwelling, Animal, Future the earth in a form of field test for students are 87.42 and expert validation 92.3%, media 95, 3%, and 92.3% language in the course of literary theory and appreciation of English language education, the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Majapahit Islamic University of Mojokerto.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Apocalyptic Literature: An Analysis of Margret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake at the time of Coronavirus

Literature has been an imitator of life for generations on this earth, this literature has voiced the voiceless. Recent contemporary and postmodern literary theories have catered to burgeoning notions of logic that go beyond human survival on the planet. Science fiction is a genre of fiction that encompasses imaginative concepts like futuristic scientific-technological settings, faster than light, past and future spatial time travel, the existence of parallel universes and extraterrestrial life etc. An outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by a novel acute respiratory syndrome of coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) occurred in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. The outbreak was declared as a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization on 30 January 2020. During this crisis, literature also plays an important role and apocalyptic literature has shown the disastrous consequences if humans didn’t stop their behaviour and attitude towards the world. This research project aims to take literature out of the realm of imagination and present the harsh realities of culture. This study revealed how literature represents the truth of the world that science is learning every day, and how certain inventions can have harmful effects if they are not halted in time. This research analysed the novel Oryx and Crake in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic and pointed a convincing glimpse of the future. Snowman (protagonist), known as Jimmy before humanity was overrun by science, is trying to live in a world where he might be the last human Snowman tells the tale of how Crake’s scientific ambitions contributed to the abolition of human civilization. The researcher emphasizes how the reel depicts reality and how people are to blame for the degradation of their world.