Think about, and be prepared to discuss, five of the remaining questions. Check any word you don't understand in a dictionary or glossary of literary terms.

The questions in bold will be addressed in the lecture; the others in the tutorial.

Modernism and The Short Story

1. Write a dot-point summary of the main events in "The Dead" and in "The Garden Party", and bring them to class to share. Think about what these summaries leave out. (This is compulsory.)

2. How much of "The Garden Party" is actually devoted to the party?

3. Where is the corpse in "The Dead"? (This is a trick question.)

4. Short fiction is often as close to lyric poetry as to prose. With "The Dead" in mind, look for examples of allusion to other texts, to foreshadowing and repetition, and to symbolism that render Joyce's prose poetic.

5. Make a list of as many references to food as you can from the texts we have read during this course. What, if anything, do the references to food in "The Dead" and "The Garden Party" have in common with texts from earlier periods?

6. How might your understanding of the symbolism of seasons and seasonal change in such texts as Sir Gawain or "To Autumn" influence your interpretation of "The Dead"?

7. Trace the many references to flowers in "The Garden Party". What symbolic value/s might they have for the meaning of the text as a whole?

8. Is there a strong sense of closure in either story? Is either, instead, open-ended?

9. Who are the narrators of each story? How is the mode of narration different from that of, say, the Gawain Poet, or those in earlier prose narratives like Gulliver's Travels or Wuthering Heights?

10. A short story often turns on an epiphany: a startling moment of revelation. Do either or these have such a moment?

11. What do these stories imply about the ability of language to adequately express human experience?

Exam Preparation: Bring to the tutorial any questions you may have about the exam, and be prepared to discuss an exemplary exam question based on Wuthering Heights.