Writers As Curators and Disruptors: how placement of domestic articles in short fiction depicts and explores notions of temporality

This critical-creative article attempts to show how writers use domestic objects in short stories to explore notions of temporality. Using two excerpts from my short story ‘Safely Gathered In’ (Schofield, 2021) as the primary material, the critical element of this paper considers three functions of household articles within short fiction from a practice research perspective. This is further evidenced and supported by three modern and contemporary writers. Through samples given of ‘Safely Gathered In’, I look at how short stories may utilise objects as tools for self-preservation, also referring to Katherine Mansfield’s ‘The Doll’s House’ (Mansfield, 2008). I consider how domestic objects may rupture and disrupt chronology with further evidence from Vanessa Onwuemezi’s ‘Dark Neighbourhood’ (Onwuemezi, 2021). Finally, I investigate how a writer can use odd curation of domestic objects to challenge preconceived notions of temporality with reference to Raymond Carver’s ‘Why Don’t You Dance?’ (Carver, 2009) as a supporting example. I also refer to the lived experience in Sam Johnson-Schlee’s essay collection Living Rooms (Johnson-Schlee, 2022), which explores notions of how we relate to the articles we have within the domestic space.