A Formalism Reading of Maugham’s “The Three Fat Women of Antibes” and “Rain”

Mohammad Abdullah Al Matarneh

Abstract


This paper focuses on a formalist analysis of Maugham’s two stories “The Three Fat Women of Antibes” and “Rain” and it offers a discussion of some major aspects of the work as a whole: genre, narration, character relations, and setting. The aim is to provide a sense of Maugham’s art of the short story with an assessment of the vital elements of what makes a short story successful in the work of William Somerset Maugham and an exploration of how his work exposes the experience. The main part of this manuscript provides a detailed analysis of selected short stories by Maugham. Especial emphasis is placed on the author’s gifted talents which shows the diversity of Maugham’s literary legacy that made him the most popular writer of his time. The study discloses that conducting a formalist analysis is supposed to be a good way in understanding literary works.

Keywords


Formalism, Narrative, Character, Setting, Conflict, Theme

Full Text:

PDF

References


Blackburn. D & Arsove. A. (2016,): Somerset Maugham’s Apocryphal “Second-Rate” Status:

Setting the Record Straight. English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920, Volume 59,

Number 2.

Blair, G. S., Johnson, K. M, and Searle, A. F. (1978). As Executors of the Estate of W.

Somerset Maugham. William Clowes Limited, Beccles and London.

Hanson, Clare. (1985). Short Stories and Short Stories Fiction 1880-1980.United Kingdom:

Macmillan Press.Ltd.

Matarneh, M. A. (2014). “Structural Evaluation of Maugham's: Before the party, The Pool, and

Mackintosh”. I J E LLS. V.3.NO, (1), pp. 71-82.

Maugham. S. W, (1921). The Trembling of a Leaf; Little Stories of the South Sea Islands. By

Duran Company. USA

Mechael O’Sullivan, () Loneliness and the Submerged Population: Revisiting Frank O’Connor’s

The Lonely Voice.

Meyers, Jeffrey. (2004) Somerset Maugham. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Scholes, R. (1981). Element of Fiction: An Anthology. New York: Oxford University Press.

Sciences 16(3).

Sudha. S (2016) “Exploring the wide varieties of life in Somerset Maugham’s Short Story

“Rain”. American International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts and Social.

http://www.academia.edu/10869456/




DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.11n.1p.35

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.




Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

2010-2023 (CC-BY) Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.

Advances in Language and Literary Studies

You may require to add the 'aiac.org.au' domain to your e-mail 'safe list’ If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox'. Otherwise, you may check your 'Spam mail' or 'junk mail' folders.