Annotated Bibliography
What We Talk About When We Talk About Raymond Carver’s Style
Anne Dean Watkins
Champion, Laurie. “So Much Whiskey So Far From Home: Misogyny, Violence, and
Alcoholism in Raymond Carver’s ‘Where I’m Calling From.’” Studies in Short
Fiction 36.3 (1999): 235-49. [LION/FirstSearch]
According to Laurie Champion, alcohol is a recurring theme and prop in Carver’s short stories. The article makes it evident that Carver’s own alcoholism is reflected in his writing. In an interview Carver speaks of his stories as his “talking cure,” or his self-therapy. Paralleling Carver’s idea of therapy, Champion discusses the Alcoholics Anonymous structure. Champion points out that there are different stages of alcoholism in various stories of Carver. Many of his stories illustrate sequences of disrupted lives and alcohol abuse, such as “Where I’m Calling From,” which shows a series of escalating cycles that involve perpetual alcohol consumption to bring relief from problems, in turn creating more reasons to drink. “Vitamins” and “Are These Actual Miles” demonstrate male alcoholics and their problems with not taking the initial step toward reducing their alcoholism or their violent attitudes toward women. (140 words)
Leypoldt, Gunter. “Raymond Carver’s ‘Epiphanic Moments.’” Style 35.3 (2001):
531-47. [LION/FirstSearch]
An epiphany, or a sudden revelation, is an aspect of Carver’s style that many critics discuss. Leypoldt researches the different types of epiphanies in Carver’s writing saying that Carver “jumbles rules of traditional aesthetic games by juxtaposing representation with silence and disconnecting experiment.” Carver’s stories are thought of as “open texts,” meaning the reader or the character itself decides the outcome or the lesson. Leypoldt discusses realist epiphany, arrested epiphany, ironized epiphany, and comic epiphany in the article. All of these epiphanies lead to Leypoldt’s point that Carver’s style cannot be reduced to one single aesthetic outlook. His writing creates an epiphany of ongoing deep thought. (106 words)
Mullen, Bill. “A Subtle Spectacle: Televisual Culture in the Short Stories of Raymond
Carver.” Critique 39.2 (1998): 99-114. [LION/FirstSearch]
Relating Carver’s writing to televisual culture, Mullen discusses two critical approaches to the author’s hardcore style: minimalist, and social and economic. Mullen discusses how many of Carver’s stories feel like or resemble contemporary American television shows. According to Mullen, television has a “capacity to dull or to eliminate awareness of both class consciousness and class inequities in contemporary American culture. Carver repeatedly highlights the working class in his writing and speaks in the monotone of television language. Several stories include instances of eavesdropping, as well as conformity. Mullen believes that Carver’s stories are effective representations of lives stocked with struggle. (100 words)
Powell, Jon. “The Stories of Raymond Carver: The Menace of Perpetual Uncertainty.”
Studies in Short Fiction 31.4 (1994): 647-56. [LION/FisrtSearch]
Powell researches the sense of menace in Carver’s writing. According to the article, a sense of menace is overlooked, leaving out or giving clues to crucial aspects of the story. Powell discusses the existential characteristics of Carver’s works, stating that many of the facts are unclear. The simplicity of Carver’s language, or the character’s language, hides the important complexities of the stories. Powell discusses the stories “Blackbird Pie” and “A Small, Good Thing” and Carver’s style which reveals pertinent knowledge too late. Powell does not criticize Carver’s style, but merely highlights the dark aspects of Carver’s authentic writing. (98 words)
Taub, Gadi. “On ‘Small, Good Things’: Raymond Carver’s Modest Existentialism.”
Raritan 22.2 (2002): 102-19. [LION/FirstSearch]
Taub’s article researches existentialism in Raymond Carver’s short story, “Small, Good Things”, a story about “specific” people and not “unique” people. Because he is concerned with the singularity of others and with people’s abilities to view each other authentically, Carver is labeled an observer. This article describes the distance between Carver’s characters, although there is an emphasis on a “fellow feeling.” His characters care about the happiness of others. Taub compares and contrasts Carver’s ‘style with the heroic philosophies of Camus and the meaningful philosophies of Freud. Taub highlights the sense of the absurd and the theme of failure in Carver’s work. According to Taub, Carver’s characters commit the greatest American sin:failure. (103 words)
Trussler, Michael. “The Narrowed Voice: Minimalism and Raymond Carver.” Studies
in Short Fiction 31.1 (1994): 23-38. [InfoTrac/FirstSearch]
Minimalist writing is often described as “terse, obliqiue, realistic or hyperrealistic, slightly plotted, extrospective, or cool-surfaced fiction,” according to Trussler in his article researching the minimalist characteristics of Carver’s stories. The article addresses Carver’s extreme distaste toward being categorized as a minimalist. Practicing “less is more,” Carver follows the footsteps of Hemingway who says, “you could omit anything if you knew that you omitted and the omitted part would strengthen the story and make people feel something more than they understood.” Trussler also refers to Carver’s essay “On Writing” where Carver thouroughly explains the possibilities of writing about commonplace things, using commonplace but precise language. (105 words)