IB+Carver++Where+I'm+Calling+From

Raymond Carver: Where I'm Calling From
The Short Stories we will study for the final HL exam in 2013 are the following:

1. Nobody said Anything 2. Little Things. 3. Why, Honey? 4. Fat. 5. Neighbors. 6. Why Don't you Dance? 7. Where I'm Calling From. 8. What We Talk About when We Talk about Love. 9. So Much Water so Close to Home. 10. Cathedral. 11. A Small Good Thing. 12. Feathers 13. Intimacy

The Handout on The characteristics of Minimalist Fiction can be found here:

The Handout on the aspects of his writing style can be found beneath. Even though this handout was designed for another book and another type of exam, it is VERY relevant, and I can just urge you to read through it carefully and follow the advice.



R. Carver's website: []

This is the first of a series of documentaries on Raymond Carver: absolutely worth your while to watch in the name of education and general interest.

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Under each of the Short Stories, I will try to add some questions, some commentaries or some ideas. It is very important that you reread all the stories on your own, and draw your own conclusions. Look for connections, comparisons and contrasts. You should also choose some quotations from each stories which you should memorize and could use in the examination. The following extracts are not necessarily right or true, but could give you something to think about.

Th articles is a general literary criticism about Carver. The chapter is called //This Word Love: Sexual Politics and Silence in Early Raymond Carver//, and it discusses many of the short stories, notably Neighbours and Fat. It is quite long, but you can skip to the parts you find particularly interesting.



1. Little Things (previously called Popular Mechanics)
These two articles discusses the short story clearly and gives some ideas of interpretation.

6. Where I'm Calling From
This is just a summary of the plot to reread This article has a summary of the plot, some analysis and some questions which could give you food for thought.

8. So Much Water so Close to Home
The text of the lyrics based on So much Water so Close to Home. You can also watch the youtube version of the song, though the quality isn't always excellent.

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These are some discussion questions for you to think about. A clear analysis to think about. - But always read this as someone else's ideas, not the one answer to an interpretation of a story.