ENH 110 Introduction to

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ENH 110 Introduction to the Short Story
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The Influence of the Past
cave painting in France from about 17,000 years
ago
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• The short story is actually rooted in the oral
  tradition
• of the distant past before the existence of
  written language.
• The earliest narratives evolved out of the need
  to share the
• experience of life with one another.
• In addition to the purely entertaining aspects of
  storytelling,
• oral cultures used it for a number of purposes
• To explain how things came to be (myths and
  legends)
• To record episodes of history as well as preserve
  
• useful information (epics, ballads, and sagas)
• To instruct moral behavior (fables and parables)
• Once writing had been invented, the written word
  allowed
• writers to explore specific and individual
  complexities of life.

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Short Story Historical Perspective
Time Frame
(circa) 3500 BC Egyptians songs to regale
Pharaohs, in narrative form
Old testament stories, e.g. Jonah and the Whale,
story of Ruth, many others
Greeks and Romans episodes and incidents in
classical narratives, Aesop's fables
Life of Christ Christ uses parables to teach his
disciples
Middle ages fables and epics about beasts
13th century Gesta Romanurum, collection of
tales
14th century Decameron and Canterbury Tales
15th century Le Morte Darthur, collection of
tales about Knighthood
(circa 1455 Invention of movable type
(Guttenberg) printing of bible)
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Guttenberg Bible Library of Congress
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Embellished Page from the Guttenberg Bible
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ENIAC 1946
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Traditional forms of story telling
Fable A brief story that sets forth some pointed
statement of truth
Textbook selections The Appointment In
Samarra, The North Wind and the Sun,
The Camel and His friends
Characteristics
Content often incidents that relate to the
unusual, sometimes supernatural many of which
have their origin in folklore sources.
Characters often anthropomorphized animals,
(beast fable) but people and/or supernatural
figures may appear
Structure skin and bones, sketched, lacks
decoration--depth of character and setting
everything leads to the usually explicit moral,
hence didactic in its purpose
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Traditional forms of story telling, cont.
Parable A brief story that also sets forth some
pointed statement of truth, but it is more
realistic and often allegorical
Textbook selection Independence Also
mentioned one of the most famous of Christs
parables, The Prodigal Son. (chp 6), pp. 164-65
Characteristics
Content often incidents that relate to the
mysterious or suggestive in tone
Characters often humans, rather than
anthropomorphized animals, or natural forces.
Structure Although also didactic in its purpose,
the parables moral is often implicit and the
meaning may have various interpretations The
arrangement of events is often more plausible.
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A parable by Tuli Kupferberg
Once there was an atomic bomb who longed
desperately to be a bullet. Why, said his
fellow atomic bombs, when you can be the most
powerfully destructive weapon in the world would
you want to be a bullet? The atomic bomb
sighed and said, I miss the personal touch.
Write down what you think is the implied moral.
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Traditional forms of story telling, cont.
Tale A brief story that sets forth strange and
wonderful events without detail of character.
Sometimes short story and tale were used
interchangebly.
Textbook selection Godfather Death, Brothers
Grimm Types Tall Tale, Fairy Tale
Characteristics
Content often incidents that relate to the
fantastic or supernatural
Characters often humans, but they are not
delineated
Structure May be complicated or not, but lacks
the conscious structure of a short story it is
usually used to denote any short narrative, true
or fictitious.
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More recent relatives of the short story
The first novel?
16th century the picaresque novel
18th century the novel
Both continuing tributes to the human love of
narrative and both factors in the development of
a formal kind of storytelling
19th century, the short story flowered there was
a conscious formulation of this type of
narrative as an art form.
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Notable among the founders of the modern short
story
In America Washington Irving, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe
In France Honoré de Balzac and Prosper Mérimée
In Germany E. T. A. Hoffman
In Russia Anton Chekhov
Click on any author for biographical information
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Major influences on the development of the Short
Story
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Edgar Allan Poe
1809- 1849
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The Short Story
Definition It is a relatively brief narrative in
prose
Length It may may range in length from 500
words (short-short storyor Flash fiction) up to
12,000 to 20,000 words (long-short story)
Characteristics definite formal development a
firmness in construction unity is found in
overall effect, plot, theme, character, mood,
point of view, tone and style.
Purpose It tends to reveal character through a
series of actions or under stress, the effect
being accomplished when the reader comes to know
what the true nature of the character is.
James Joyces description epiphany-- because of
its quality of revelation
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Commercial Fiction
Literary Fiction
Written to broaden, deepen, and sharpen our
awareness of life
Written for entertainment
Takes us away from reality
Takes us deeper into reality
Objective is understanding
Objective is pleasure
Presents an insight--large or small-- into the
nature of our existence
World of Fiction fictio shaping,
counterfeiting
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Characters Sympathetic hero or heroine often
stock figures
Structure A plot which emphasizes action
and suspense
Fixed expectations of readers of Commercial
Fiction
Ending A happy one that doesn't move the
reader beyond one plane of reality
Theme (if there is one) usually a message that
is rooted in predictability
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Literary fiction
Any fiction that illuminates some aspect of human
life or behavior with genuine originality and
power may be called literary. Such a story
presents an insight--whether large or
small--into the nature and condition of our
existence. It gives us a keener awareness of our
humanity within a universe that is sometimes
friendly, sometimes hostile. It helps us to
understand our world, our neighbors, ourselves.
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As you begin your excursion into literary
fiction, please include in your mental backpack
verisimilitude
The semblance of reality in dramatic or
nondramatic fiction. The concept implies that
either the action represented must be acceptable
or convincing according to the audiences own
experience or knowledge or, as in the
presentation of science fiction or tales of the
supernatural, the audience must be enticed into
willingly suspending disbelief and accepting
improbable actions as true within the framework
of the narrative.
Encyclopedia Britannica
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FIN