Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter 1
2. Contents 7
3. Preface and Acknowledgements 9
4. Introduction 13
5. Part One: Life, Literature, and Knowledge: Theoretical Premises
6. 1. Literature, Life Knowledge, and ‘Science for Living’ 41
7. 2. The Knowledge of Literature: Positions, Debates, and Approaches 51
8. Part Two: The Genericity of Literary Life Knowledge in the Short Story
9. 4. The Short Story as an Organon of Life Knowledge: An Epistemological Approach to the Genre 83
10. 5. Life Knowledge as Projection: The Cognitive Work of Short Stories 93
11. 6. Life-Changing Experiences and Turning Points: The Crisis-Ridden Life Knowledge of the Short Story 101
12. 7. The American Short Story and the Temporalization of Life in Modernity: Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” 111
13. Part III: Stages of Life – Staging Life in the Short Story
14. 8. Epistemological Uncertainty and Knowledge of Maturation in Stories of Initiation: Sherwood Anderson's "I Want to Know Why", Eudora Welty's "A Visit of Charity" and "A Memory", and Junot Díaz's "Ysrael" 141
15. 9. Midlife Crisis as Turning Point for the ‘Mature Moderns’: John Cheever’s “The Country Husband” 163
16. 10. Stories of ‘Unlived’ and Secret Lives: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sherwood Anderson, Henry James, and James Thurber 177
17. 11. Gerontophobia, Ageism, and the Wisdom of Later Life in Stories of Aging: Willa Cather’s “Old Mrs. Harris” and Eudora Welty’s “Old Mr. Marblehall” 195
18. 12. Understanding Life Retrospectively in Stories of Remembered Life: Willa Cather, William Saroyan, Russell Banks, Anthony Doerr 217
19. Coda: The Short Story as Epistemological Fiction Alice Munro’s “What Do You Want to Know For?” 231
20. Works Cited 249