Short story
A short story is a work of
fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This
format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas
(in the 20th and 21st century sense) and novels. Short story definitions based
on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because of
the fragmentation of the medium into genres. Since the short story format
includes a wide range of genres and styles, the actual length is determined by
the individual author's preference (or the story's actual needs in terms of
creative trajectory or story arc) and the submission guidelines relevant to the
story's actual market. Guidelines vary greatly among publishers.[1]
Many short story writers define
their work through a combination of creative, personal expression, and artistic
integrity. They attempt to resist categorization by genre as well as definition
by numbers, finding such approaches limiting and counter-intuitive to artistic
form and reasoning. As a result, definitions of the short story based on length
splinter even more when the writing process is taken into
consideration.Contents [hide]
1 Overview
2 Length
3 History
3.1 Predecessors
3.2 1790–1850
3.3 1850–1900
3.4 1900–1945
3.5 After 1945
Overview
Authors such as Charles Dickens,
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Nathaniel Hawthorne, Virginia Woolf, Bolesław Prus, Dino
Buzzati, Rudyard Kipling, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce,
Franz Kafka, P. G. Wodehouse, H. P. Lovecraft, D. H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, and
Ernest Hemingway were highly accomplished writers of both short stories and
novels.
Short stories have their roots in
oral story-telling traditions and the prose anecdote, a swiftly sketched
situation that quickly comes to its point. With the rise of the comparatively
realistic novel, the short story evolved as a miniature version, with some of
its first perfectly independent examples in the tales of E. T. A. Hoffmann.
Other 19th-century writers well known for their short stories include Nikolai
Gogol, Guy de Maupassant, and Bolesław Prus.
Some authors are known almost
entirely for their short stories, either by choice (they wrote nothing else) or
by critical regard (short-story writing is thought of as a challenging art). An
example is Jorge Luis Borges, who won American fame with "The Garden of
Forking Paths", published in the August 1948 Ellery Queen's Mystery
Magazine. Another example is O. Henry (author of "Gift of the Magi"),
for whom the O. Henry Award is named. American examples include Flannery
O'Connor, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver.
Short stories have often been
adapted for half-hour and hour radio dramas, as on NBC Presents: Short Story
(1951–52).
The art of storytelling is
doubtlessly older than record of civilization. Even the so-called modern short
story, which was the latest of the major literary types to evolve, has an
ancient lineage. Perhaps the oldest and most direct ancestor of the short story
is the anecdote and illustrative story, straight to the point.
The ancient parable and fable,
starkly brief narrative used to enforce some moral or spiritual truth,
anticipate the severe brevity and unity of some short stories written today.
Short stories tend to be less
complex than novels. Usually a short story focuses on one incident; has a
single plot, a single setting, and a small number of characters; and covers a
short period of time.
In longer forms of fiction,
stories tend to contain certain core elements of dramatic structure: exposition
(the introduction of setting, situation and main characters); complication (the
event that introduces the conflict); rising action, crisis (the decisive moment
for the protagonist and his commitment to a course of action); climax (the
point of highest interest in terms of the conflict and the point with the most
action); resolution (the point when the conflict is resolved); and moral.
Because of their length, short
stories may or may not follow this pattern. Some do not follow patterns at all.
For example, modern short stories only occasionally have an exposition. More
typical, though, is an abrupt beginning, with the story starting in the middle
of the action (in medias res). As with longer stories, plots of short stories
also have a climax, crisis, or turning point. However, the endings of many
short stories are abrupt and open and may or may not have a moral or practical
lesson. As with any art forms, the exact characteristics of a short story will
vary by creator.
When short stories intend to
convey a specific ethical or moral perspective, they fall into a more specific
sub-category called parables (or fables). This specific kind of short story has
been used by spiritual and religious leaders worldwide to inspire, enlighten,
and educate their followers.
Length
Determining what exactly separates
a short story from longer fictional formats is problematic. A classic
definition of a short story is that one should be able to read it in one
sitting, a point most notably made in Edgar Allan Poe's essay "The
Philosophy of Composition" (1846). Interesting to note that the idea of
"one sitting", may no longer mean the same time period, in modern,
faster-paced times. Other definitions place the maximum word count of the short
story at anywhere from 1,000 to 9,000 words. In contemporary usage, the term
short story most often refers to a work of fiction no longer than 20,000 words
and no shorter than 1,000. Stories of less than 1,000 words are sometimes
referred to as "short short stories",[2] or "flash
fiction."
As a point of reference for the
science fiction genre writer, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of
America define short story length Nebula Awards for science fiction submission
guidelines as having a word count of less than 7,500.[3]
History
Predecessors
Short stories date back to oral
story-telling traditions which originally produced epics such as Homer's Iliad
and Odyssey. Oral narratives were often told in the form of rhyming or rhythmic
verse, often including recurring sections or, in the case of Homer, Homeric
epithets. Such stylistic devices often acted as mnemonics for easier recall,
rendition and adaptation of the story. Short sections of verse might focus on
individual narratives that could be told at one sitting. The overall arc of the
tale would emerge only through the telling of multiple such sections.
Fables, succinct tales with an
explicit "moral," were said by the Greek historian Herodotus to have
been invented in the 6th century BCE by a Greek slave named Aesop, though other
times and nationalities have also been given for him. These ancient fables are
today known as Aesop's Fables.
The other ancient form of short
story, the anecdote, was popular under the Roman Empire .
Anecdotes functioned as a sort of parable, a brief realistic narrative that
embodies a point. Many surviving Roman anecdotes were collected in the 13th or
14th century as the Gesta Romanorum. Anecdotes remained popular in Europe well into the 18th century, when the fictional
anecdotal letters of Sir Roger de Coverley were published.
In Europe ,
the oral story-telling tradition began to develop into written stories in the
early 14th century, most notably with Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and
Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron. Both of these books are composed of individual
short stories (which range from farce or humorous anecdotes to well-crafted
literary fictions) set within a larger narrative story (a frame story),
although the frame tale device was not adopted by all writers. At the end of
the 16th century, some of the most popular short stories in Europe
were the darkly tragic "novella" of Matteo Bandello (especially in
their French translation).
The mid 17th century in France saw the
development of a refined short novel, the "nouvelle", by such authors
as Madame de Lafayette. In the 1690s, traditional fairy tales began to be
published (one of the most famous collections was by Charles Perrault). The
appearance of Antoine Galland's first modern translation of the Thousand and
One Nights (or Arabian Nights) (from 1704; another translation appeared in 1710–12)
would have an enormous influence on the 18th century European short stories of
Voltaire, Diderot and others.
1790–1850
There are early examples of short
stories published separately between 1790 and 1810, but the first true
collections of short stories appeared between 1810 and 1830 in several
countries around the same period.[4]
The first short stories in the United Kingdom
were gothic tales like Richard Cumberland's "remarkable narrative"
"The Poisoner of Montremos" (1791).[5] Great novelists like Sir
Walter Scott and Charles Dickens also wrote some short stories.
One of the earliest short stories
in the United States
was Charles Brockden Brown's "Somnambulism" from 1805. Washington
Irving wrote mysterious tales including "Rip van Winkle" (1819) and
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820). Nathaniel Hawthorne published
the first part of his Twice-Told Tales in 1837. Edgar Allan Poe wrote his tales
of mystery and imagination between 1842 and 1859. Classic stories are "The
Fall of the House of Usher", "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The
Cask of Amontillado", "The Pit and the Pendulum", and the first
detective story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". In "The
Philosophy of Composition" (1846) Poe argued that a literary work should
be short enough for a reader to finish in one sitting.[6]
In Germany the first collection of
short stories was by Heinrich von Kleist in 1810 and '11. The Brothers Grimm
published their first volume of collected fairy tales in 1812. E. T. A.
Hoffmann followed with his own original fantasy tales, of which "The
Nutcracker and the Mouse King" (1816) is the most famous.
In France Prosper Mérimée wrote
Mateo Falcone in 1829.
In Russia Alexander Pushkin wrote
romantic and mysterious tales, including "The Blizzard" (1831) and
"The Queen of Spades" (1834). Nikolai Gogol's "Nevsky
Prospekt" (1835), "The Nose" (1836) and "The Overcoat"
(1842) are dark humorous tales about human misery.
1850–1900
In the latter 19th century, the
growth of print magazines and journals created a strong demand for short
fiction of between 3,000 and 15,000 words.
In the United Kingdom Thomas
Hardy wrote dozens of short stories, including "The Three Strangers"
(1883), "A Mere Interlude" (1885) and "Barbara of the House of
Grebe" (1890). Rudyard Kipling published short story collections for
grown-ups, e.g. Plain Tales from the Hills (1888), as well as for children,
e.g. The Jungle Book (1894). In 1892 Arthur Conan Doyle brought the detective
story to a new height with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. H. G. Wells wrote
his first science fiction stories in the 1880s. One of his best known "The
Country of the Blind" (1904).
In the United States Herman
Melville published his story collection The Piazza Tales in 1856. "The
Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was the title story of Mark
Twain's first book one year later. In 1884, Brander Matthews, the first
American professor of dramatic literature, published The Philosophy of the
Short-Story. At that same year, Matthews was the first one to name the emerging
genre "short story". Another theorist of narrative fiction was Henry
James. James wrote a lot of short stories himself, including "The Real
Thing" (1892), "Maud-Evelyn" and The Beast in the Jungle (1903).
In the 1890s Kate Chopin published short stories in several magazines.
The most prolific French author
of short stories was Guy de Maupassant. Stories like "Boule de Suif"
("Ball of Fat", 1880) and "L'Inutile Beauté" ("The
Useless Beauty", 1890) are good examples of French realism.
In Russia Ivan Turgenev gained
recognition with his story collection A Sportsman's Sketches. Nikolai Leskov
created his first short stories in the 1860s. Late in his life Fyodor
Dostoyevski wrote "The Meek One" (1876) and "The Dream of a
Ridiculous Man" (1877), two stories with great psychological and
philosophical depth. Leo Tolstoy handled ethical questions in his short
stories, for example in "Ivan the Fool" (1885), "How Much Land
Does a Man Need?" (1886) and "Alyosha the Pot" (1905). The
greatest specialist of the Russian short story however was Anton Chekhov.
Classic examples of his realistic prose are "The Bet" (1889),
"Ward No. 6" (1892), and "The Lady with the Dog" (1899).
Maxim Gorky's best known short story is "Twenty-six Men and a Girl"
(1899).
In Poland Bolesław Prus was the
most important author of short stories. In 1888 he wrote "A Legend of Old
Egypt".
[edit]
1900–1945
In the United Kingdom periodicals like The
Strand Magazine, The Sketch, Harper's Magazine and Story-Teller contributed to
the popularity of the short story. Hector Hugh Munro (1870–1916), also known by
his pen name of Saki, wrote satirical short stories about Edwardian England. W. Somerset Maugham, who wrote over a hundred short
stories, was one of the most popular authors of his time. P. G. Wodehouse
published his first collection of comical stories about butler Jeeves in 1917.
Lots of detective stories were written by G. K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie en
Dorothy L. Sayers.[7] Short stories by Virginia Woolf are Kew Gardens
In Ireland James Joyce published
his short story collection Dubliners in 1914. These stories, written in a more
accessible style than his later novels, are based on careful observation of the
inhabitants of his birth city.
In the first half of the 20th
century, a number of high-profile American magazines such as The Atlantic
Monthly, The New Yorker Scribner's, The Saturday Evening Post, Esquire and The
Bookman published short stories in each issue. The demand for quality short
stories was so great and the money paid for such so well that F. Scott
Fitzgerald repeatedly turned to short-story (as Matthews preferred to write it)
writing to pay his numerous debts. His first collection Flappers and Philosophers
appeared in book form 1920. William Faulkner wrote over one hundred short
stories. Go Down, Moses, a collection of seven stories, appeared in 1941.
Ernest Hemingway's concise writing style was perfectly fit for shorter fiction.
Stories like A Clean, Well-Lighted Place (1926), Hills Like White Elephants
(1927) and The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1936) are only a few pages long, but
carefully crafted. Dorothy Parker's bittersweet story Big Blonde saw the light
in 1929. A popular science fiction story is Nightfall by Isaac Asimov.
Katherine Mansfield from New Zealand
wrote a lot of short stories beween 1912 and her death in 1923. The Doll's
House (1922) treats the topic of social inequity.[9]
Two important authors of short
stories in the German language were Thomas Mann and Franz Kafka. In 1922 the
latter wrote A Hunger Artist, about a man who fasts for several days.
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927)
is called the Father of the Japanese short story.
After 1945
The period following World War II
saw a great flowering of literary short fiction in the United States .
The New Yorker continued to publish the works of the form’s leading mid-century
practitioners, including Shirley Jackson, whose story, The Lottery, published
in 1948, elicited the strongest response in the magazine’s history to that
time. Other frequent contributors during the last 1940s included John Cheever, John
Steinbeck, Jean Stafford, and Eudora Welty. J. D. Salinger's Nine Stories
(1953) experimented with point of view and voice, while Flannery O’Connor's
story A Good Man is Hard to Find (1955) reinvigorated the Southern Gothic
style. Cultural and social identity played a considerable role in much of the
short fiction of the 1960s. Philip Roth and Grace Paley cultivated distinctive
Jewish-American voices. Tillie Olsen’s I Stand Here Ironing (1961) adopted a
consciously feminist perspective. James Baldwin’s collection Going to Meet the
Man (1965) told stories of African-American life. Frank O’Connor’s The Lonely
Voice, an exploration of the short story, appeared in 1963. Wallace Stegner's
short stories are primarily set in the American West. Stephen King published a
lot of short stories in men's magazines in the 1960s and after. The 1970s saw
the rise of the post-modern short story in the works of Donald Barthelme and
John Barth. Traditionalists including John Updike and Joyce Carol Oates
maintained significant influence on the form. Minimalism gained widespread
influence in the 1980s, most notably in the work of Raymond Carver and Ann
Beattie.
In Canada Saul Bellow published
Mosby's Memoirs in 1968, a story about an old intellectual.[10] Alice Munro,
who is nicknamed the Canadian Chekhov, started publishing in the same year.[11]
In the United Kingdom Daphne du
Maurier wrote suspense stories like The Birds (1952) and Don't Look Now (1971).
Roald Dahl was the master of the twist-in-the-tale. Short story collections
like Lamb to the Slaughter (1953) and Kiss Kiss (1960) illustrate his dark
humour.
In Italy Italo Calvino published
the short story collection Marcovaldo, about a poor man in a city, in 1963.
The
Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges is the most famous writer of short stories
in the Spanish language. The Library of Babel (1941) and The Aleph (1945)
handle difficult subjects like infinity.
short story
short story, brief fictional
prose narrative that is
shorter than a novel and that
usually deals with only a few characters.
The short story is usually
concerned with a single effect conveyed in only one or a few significant
episodes or scenes. The form encourages economy of setting, concise narrative,
and the omission of a complex plot; character is disclosed in action and
dramatic encounter but is seldom fully developed. Despite its relatively
limited scope, though, a short story is often judged by its ability to provide
a “complete” or satisfying treatment of its characters and subject.
No comments:
Post a Comment