Short stories as a Source of Cultural Insight When Teaching English

English: The aim of this thesis is to examine how short stories can provide a source of cultural insight when teaching English. I analyse three different short stories in my search for answers to this question; “The Ultimate Safari” by Nadine Gordimer, “Tony’s Story” by Leslie Marmon Silko, and “The Thing Around Your Neck” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. In doing this I also employ theories about reading to discuss how the texts can be understood by readers. The three short stories are set in very different social and cultural contexts. In “The Ultimate Safari”, Gordimer describes a little girl’s flight through the Kruger National Park, and the text can be read as a testament to the horrors of war, as well as a comment on power structures and inequality between whites and people of colour. Some of the aspects I focus on in my analysis of this story are the use of narrator and symbolism, as these are fundamental for understanding the cultural and social themes. “Tony’s Story” gives us a glimpse into a Native American culture, and provides potential insight into beliefs, values and the importance of stories in this society. In “The Thing Around Your Neck” we get acquainted with a young Nigerian woman who moves to America in pursuit of happiness, and is faced with American prejudice about Africans, as well as having to reconsider her own stereotypical image of Americans. What all three short stories have in common is an element of cultural confrontation. In my discussion of how these texts can be understood by readers, and the discussion of possibilities and challenges related to teaching the stories, I employ what McCormick (1994) terms a social-cultural approach. This approach sees reading as both an individual constructive act, but the reader is also situated in time and space, as a subject in his/her historical context. Showing examples from the short-stories I analyse, I discuss the role of the general and literary ideology of both text and reader, and how this affects the teaching situation. I also show examples of how fictional texts such as short stories can provide different kinds of insight than factual texts can provide