Table of Contents Acknowledgments (Anna Wing-bo Tso) vi Foreword (Andrew Parkin) 1 Preface 3 Part I Short Stories: Genre and Literary Criticism 1. A Brief History of the Short Story as a Literary Genre 7 2. Practical Literary Criticism 40 Part II Close Reading for Short Stories 3. Religion and Redemption in ­O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" 59 4. Consumerism, Alienation and Digital Dystopia in Bradbury's "The Veldt" 72 5. Masculinity and Sexuality in Proulx's "Brokeback Mountain" 85 6. Fantasy and Fan Fiction in Gaiman's "The Problem of Susan" 98 Part III Literary and Comparative Analyses of Short Stories 7. Psychoanalysis and the Gothic in Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" and Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr.

Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" 113 8. Irony and Paralysis in Joyce's "Grace" and Trevor's "Of the Cloth" 136 9. Civil Rights and Prejudice in Walker's "Everyday Use" and Smith's "The Embassy of Cambodia" 154 10. Femininity and Social Pressures in Lessing's "To Room Nineteen" and Gilman's "The Yellow ­Wall-Paper" 174 Afterword 190 Index 193.