A Short History of the Short Story E-Book

Gulnaz Fatma

• Herausgeber: Modern History Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: World Voices
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Seitenzahl: 53

Beschreibung

Worldwide Appreciation of the Short Story Form Spans Cultures and Centuries!
In this concise volume, Gulnaz Fatma traces the short story from its origins in fables, ancient poetry, and tales such as The Arabian Nights, to its modern form in the early American stories of Irving, Poe, and Hawthorne, and then through the twentieth century and throughout the world. The elements of what makes a short story are presented along with a discussion of the difficulties in defining the genre. The short story's relation to the novel as well as its uniqueness as its own form are deftly presented.
While the American and European traditions of the short story take up much of this book, the final chapter is a thorough presentation of the short story's development in India. Anyone interested in the short story--teachers, students, writers, and readers--will find this volume informative, thoughtful, and a welcome addition to our understanding of one of literature's most dynamic forms.
Gulnaz Fatma is an Indian writer and author. She is a research scholar in the Department of English at Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh, India.
"As a fiction writer who has also taught the short story form, I was impressed by the thoroughness and insight presented in this concise book. Fatma's broad exploration of the short story form is backed by numerous supporting examples and her chapter on the short story in India will introduce many readers to that country's own literary gems."
--Tyler R. Tichelaar, Ph.D. and author of the award-winning Narrow Lives
Literary Criticism: Short Stories
Literary Criticism: Asian - General

Leseprobe

A Short History

of the Short Story:

Western and Asian Traditions

Gulnaz Fatma MA, MBA, PhD (Pursuing)

From the World Voices Series

Modern History Press

A Short History of the Short Story: Western and Asian Traditions

Copyright © 2012 by Gulnaz Fatma. All Rights Reserved.

From the World Voices Series

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fatma, Gulnaz.

A short history of the short story : Western and Asian traditions / Gulnaz Fatma.

      p. cm. -- (World voices series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-61599-166-2 (trade paper : alk. paper)

1. Short story. I. Title.

PN3321.F38 2012

809.3'1--dc23

2012027290

Modern History Press, an imprint of Loving Healing Press

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Ann Arbor, MI 48105

USA

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Distributed by Ingram Book Group, Bertrams books (UK).

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Chapter 1 - The Short Story: An Overview

Chapter 2 - Chief Elements of a Short Story

Chapter 3 - Principal Reasons for the Short Story’s Popularity

Chapter 4 - The Development of the Short Story

Chapter 5 - The Short Story in America and Europe

Chapter 6 - The Short Story in India

Conclusion

Bibliography

About the Author

Index

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Iffat Ara, for her esteemed guidance and patience. She has always been supportive and encouraging and has fostered my academic growth. I would also like to thank all members of the Department of English at Aligarh Muslim University, especially the Chairperson, Professor S. Nuzhat Zeba, for her cooperation in my research. I extend a special thanks to my parents, Mr. Mahboob Hasan and Mrs. Shahnaz Begum, and to Mr. Mahmood Hasan, Shamanaz, and Mahnaz for supporting me at every step of my life.

Finally, I would like to thank my dear friend Mohd Aarif Khan for providing careful and critical readings and challenging me to think more critically.

I owe my profound thanks to Tyler R. Tichelaar, editor of this book, for his keen interest and worthy guidance. His critical reading of my book enabled me to form a conceptual framework of this book.

Last, but not least, I would like to thank to Victor R. Volkman, the Senior Editor of Modern History Press, for publishing the book in such a beautiful form and in a timely way.

Preface

In this book, I have tried to present a brief and clear account of the short story in the literature of the East and the West. I have attempted to provide wide references to short story literature, with full bibliographical details. My intention has been to produce a book in simple form for the use of college students, research scholars, and for such readers as might be interested in knowing the short story’s historical background.

I hope my endeavor will be found useful. Any suggestions for this book’s improvement will be most welcome.

Gulnaz Fatma

MA, MBA, PhD (Pursuing)

Aligarh Muslim University

Aligarh, India

May 26, 2012

Chapter 1 - The Short Story: An Overview

The short story is one of the oldest types of literature, and it has existed in many forms, including myths, fairy tales, ballads, and parables. The modern short story, in an improved form, originated in the first quarter of the nineteenth century first in the United States of America. Before the short story came into existence, different genres of literature had been popular in different periods. For example, in the sixteenth century, drama was the dominant form of literature, and in the eighteenth century, the essay was the center of interest, but in the nineteenth century, these forms lost much of their popularity as novels and short stories replaced them.

The short story took a long time to reach its modern form. It was very much influenced by the novel because it is a miniature form of that art of prose fiction. It is difficult to trace the earliest form of prose literature because with the passage of time, many forms of literature lost their identity and the process of change gave them an altogether new appearance.

A short story sometimes contains little or no dialogue, but it may also be made up of dialogue while the description is brief, as in Stevenson’s collection Island Nights’ Entertainments (1893) where local color is dominant. A modern short story describes all kinds of problems. In Washington Irving’s “The Stout Gentleman” (1822), a whimsical fancy is worked out with admirable skill. Poe’s “The Gold-Bug” (1843) is based on a puzzle, Stevenson’s “Olalla” (1885) is an excursion into morbid psychology.

H.G. Wells describes the purpose and art of the short story as:

The jolly art, of making something very bright and moving; it may be horrible or pathetic or funny or profoundly illuminating, having only this essential, that it should take from fifteen to fifty minutes to read aloud. (Mundra and Sahani 139)

Somerset Maugham thinks that the short story’s desired effect can be achieved by a strict adherence to form:

The short story must have a definite design, which includes a point of departure, a climax and a point of test; in other words, it must have a plot, the plot pins down and presents a piece of life within the confines of its own construction; in so doing it exhibits life to us, as it were under a microscope and enables us to view it more clearly than we can do in the raw. (Mundra and Sahani 139)

Hugh Walpole supports this view:

A story should be a story; a record of things happening full of incidents, swift movements, unexpected development, leading through suspense to a climax and a satisfying denouement. (Mundra and Sahani 139)

Edgar Allan Poe emphasized that the short story should have a unity of impression and singleness of purpose:

There should be no word written of which the tendency direct or indirect, is not the one pre-established design. (Mundra and Sahani 139)

The conception of the short story as a finished product of art is, however, opposed by Chekhov, according to whom the story should have neither a beginning nor an end. It should only be a “slice of life” presented suggestively. Chekhov does not round off his stories; he leaves their ends hanging in the air so readers may draw their own conclusions. Mundra and Sahani, in Advanced Literary Essays, describe Chekhov’s technique as: “He suggests a situation, and by the time we turn to him to know the conclusion he is going to arrive at, we find that the narrative disappears” (139).