The Shining Mountain

This study guide will help you analyse the text “The Shining Mountain” by Alison Fell. The text is found in Contexts, p. 18. We will show you examples of elements in the text that will be relevant for your analysis.

In these notes, we will focus on the summary, structure, characters, narrator and point of view, setting, language, themes and message, and we will help you put the text into perspective.

Presentation of the text

Title: “The Shining Mountain”
Author: Alison Fell
Date of Publication: 1992
Genre: Short Story

Alison Fell (1944) is a Scottish writer and poet. She was educated in Scotland and graduated to become a sculptor. Later on, she began writing for several magazines and newspapers, all while also focusing on her poetry and fiction.

Excerpt

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Literary period

“The Shining Mountain” is a Modernist piece of fiction that has many of the features of fairy-tales. We get to read about an initiatory journey, about the magic number three, a magic being (the goddess) and a happy ending.

Besides these fairy-tale features, the short story is Modernist because it focuses on the inner struggles of the main characters and because the author makes readers connect to the story’s message, as it is timeless.