WL101 Lecture 2

Short stories are much more psychologically complex and less on the side of trying to teach
something. The short stories are open to more irony than other short forms. Short stories also
depict inner life which is why it’s necessary tzo perform close readings.

a) Plot: the representation of story elements according to the parameters of time, causality
and tension.
1) Stages of the plot: Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution.
2) Different kinds: Unified, discontinuous (episodic, flashback, foreshadow)
3) Kinds of plot of archetypes: quest, love, triangle, transformation.

Leo Tolstoy was the greatest writer of the 20th century, he was a Christian Anarchist who
supported a non-violent ideology, which influenced figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin
Lurther king.

How much land does a man need –

The story is a conversation between a younger and an older sister. The younger sister lives in a
village and her husband is a peasant. On the other hand, the older sister lives in a town and her
husband is a trader and they both get into an argument as to which the town or the village is a
better place to be.

This story is all about desire and the greed of mankind, we would never be satisfied with how
much we have, we would constantly want more.
Mimetic Desire: it is an explanation of human desire and culture and how we mimic our culture
and desire seeing people around us.

Baskhirs are tribal indigenous people (strong claim but not enough in the textbook to support it)
who Pahom thinks can take advantage of and buy their land for a lot cheaper than if he just
goes to another trader. The text also says ‘simple as sheep’ which shows that the people are
humble and innocent and they do not know how to utilize the large size of lands they have.

The baskhirs are very nice people, they welcome Pahom, killed a sheep and fed him mutton and
took him inside their big tent where they had Pahom sit on a cushion. The baskhirs are kumis
(which means they are self-sufficient people).