‘Sometimes Two People like Each Other Who Shouldn’t’: Díaz, Schickler and Bradbury stories that defamiliarize the teacher–student relationship

Abstract

Abstract Charles E. May’s assertion that Junot Díaz’s ‘Miss Lora’, 2013 winner of The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award, is not outstanding is challenged. The current discourse on teacher–student sex scandals is used to inform a reading of Díaz’s story that reveals its success under critical scrutiny. Sheila L. Cavanagh’s sociological work on the sex scandals surrounding white female teachers is incorporated alongside James Knoll’s work as a psychologist on profiling sexually predatory female teachers. ‘The Smoker’ by David Schickler and ‘These Things Happen’ by Ray Bradbury are also analysed as fitting into the trope of students and teachers developing relationships that fall outside the bounds of the white heteronormative master narrative. May’s claim that short stories succeed in ‘defamiliarizing’ our everyday constructs of reality is shown to occur in each story in relation to our expectations of the sexual boundaries between teachers and students.