Historical Development of the Short Story Form

1
Historical Development of the Short Story Form

• A Very Basic Introduction to Literary Movements
  and Fictional Forms

2
Fictional Forms

• Fiction comes in many forms. These forms include
  the novel, the novella, the short story, and the
  short-short.
• The novel is the longest form of prose fiction
  (as a rule of thumb, 120 pages or more) that
  dates from the eighteenth century in England.
  The three writers who are credited with
  developing this form into what we know as the
  novel today are Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe) ,
  Samuel Richardson (Pamela), and Henry Fielding
  (Tom Jones).
• The novella is a medium-length form of prose
  fiction (roughly 40-120 pages) that contains
  characteristics of both the novel and the short
  story. The history of this form is complex, with
  many critics disagreeing on its precise origins
  and lineage.
• The short story is a short fictional form,
  usually comprised of between six and forty pages.
  The short story, as we know it today, is an
  American invention dating from the nineteenth
  century.
• The short-short is a very short fictional form,
  that contains less than six pages. A relatively
  new form, it dates from the twentieth century.

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The Short Story

• For the purposes of Web 2413, we will focus
  exclusively on the short story. This does not
  mean that the short story is in some way more
  important than other fictional forms. We simply
  do not have time to deal in any meaningful way
  with more than one fictional form.
• We will focus on a series of literary movements
  that trace the historical development of the
  short story. However, because of the vast scope
  of the short story genre, this coverage of
  literary movements will be very broad and will
  emphasize American short stories and authors.
• The short story has ancient roots. Its
  beginnings lie in the oral tradition that
  stretches back into prehistory. The first
  written examples of what would become the short
  story are in works like Homers Iliad and
  Odyssey, which began in an oral form and were
  later written down.
• Ovids Metamorphoses and Boccaccios Decameron
  are seminal examples of the development of the
  short story form across the centuries, as is
  Chaucers Canterbury Tales.

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The Short Story, cont.

• However, many modern critics and scholars point
  to nineteenth century America as the birthplace
  of the modern short story genre.
• American authors did not give birth to this new
  form in a vacuum. They drew on European literary
  traditions and forms.
• Charles May, Susan Garland Mann, and James Nagel
  all credit Washington Irving, in his Sketchbook
  of Geoffrey Crayon, with being the writer who
  first combined the constituent elements of what
  would become the modern short storythe sketch,
  basically a realistically-depicted word picture
  and the tale, a story with many characteristics
  of the oral tradition that often involves the
  intrusion of the supernatural into daily
  lifeinto the form we call short story today.

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The Short Story, cont.

• So the historical arc of the American short story
  began with Irvings Sketchbook and then moved to
  other American Romantics like Edgar Allan Poe.
• The American Realists, particularly under the
  influence of William Dean Howells, carried the
  arc forward to the end of the 19th Century.
• The American Naturalists, including Jack London,
  advanced the arc alongside the American
  Naturalists, and helped to push the short story
  form into the 20th Century.

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The Short Story, cont.

• American Modernists like Ernest Hemingway
  developed the short story into a high art form
  that reflected the post World War I reality of
  the Western world.
• Post-Modernists like John Barth sought to use the
  literature of exhaustion to reflect the late
  20th Century reality in an increasingly urban and
  mass-media dominated American society.
• And over the course of the entire 20th Century
  and into the 21st, marginalized writers like
  Sandra Cisneros have used the short story to give
  voice to perspectives too long silenced.

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The Romantics (1790-1880)

• Edgar Allan Poe was an American Romantic who,
  following in the wake of Washington Irvings
  invention of the short story form, helped to
  develop that new form in significant ways.
• Poe is a towering figure in American letters. He
  was a poet, a critic who helped codify the
  developing short story form, as well as a fiction
  writer who made significant contributions to the
  short story form with his own stories of the
  macabre.
• With his review of Hawthornes Twice-Told Tales,
  Edgar Allan Poe deeply influenced the development
  of the short story genre. Poes call for a unity
  of effect in the short story fundamentally
  altered the fictional techniques of every short
  story writer who came after him.

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The Romantics, cont.

• Although we will focus on American Romanticism,
  it is important to remember that Romanticism was
  a worldwide literary movement that lasted from
  around 1790-1880. There were German Romantics,
  French Romantics, English Romantics, American
  Romantics, etc. Writers in each of these
  different countries drew on folktales and myths
  specific to their own places of origin in writing
  their worksso generalizing is difficult.
• The Romantics tended to emphasize form over
  content, and saw the author as a godlike
  interpreter of the world who made sacred the
  profane by translating his individual vision into
  art. For example, in stories like The Tell-Tale
  Heart, Poe introduces the mentally-disturbed
  narrator who carries the reader headlong into the
  world of artan outlandish reflection of the
  Godlike writers inner vision.
• Edgar Allan Poes work with point of view, and
  his eerie American Gothic stories would greatly
  affect the work of future writers.

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The Romantics, cont.

• Edgar Allan Poes fiction reflects the
  characteristics of American Romanticism.
• However, as previously mentioned, Romanticism was
  worldwide movement and great variations exist
  among its many branches.
• The general characteristics of Romanticism are as
  follows
• A godlike author (the author experienced the
  world directly, then recreated his experience
  later in doing so, he/she recreates the world in
  his/her own image).
• Inspiration valued over refined technique (the
  Romantics were, in some part, rebelling against
  the work of the authors who preceded them the
  Romantics felt that these authors were stale
  and relied too much on technique).
• A focus on myth and/or the supernatural
  (out-of-body experiences, demons, and other
  strange phenomena abound in Romantic works).
• A local setting is emphasized (the Romantics
  tended to focus on details and places that were
  unique to their own countries and cultures).

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Gothic

• The Gothic novel dominated English literature
  from its conception in 1764 with the publication
  of The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole until
  the middle of the nineteenth century. The Gothic
  genre has been continually criticized by numerous
  critics for its sensationalism, its melodramatic
  qualities, and its play on the supernatural.
• It is necessary to draw a distinction here
  between the Gothic literary movement, which
  lasted from 1764 to around 1850, and the Gothic
  genre, which still thrives today.
• A genre is merely a literary form. The form
  created by Walpole and other writers of the
  Gothic movement has been incredibly popular and
  long-lasting. Edgar Allan Poe, Flannery
  OConnor, and William Faulkner all wrote Gothic
  stories. Today, writers like Stephen King and
  Anne Rice are still publishing Gothic novels that
  are read by vast audiences.

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Gothic, cont.

• The Gothic genre drew many of its intense images
  from the graveyard poets Gray and Thompson,
  intermingling a landscape of vast dark forest
  with vegetation that bordered on excessive,
  concealed ruins with horrific rooms, monasteries
  and a forlorn character who excels at the
  melancholy.
• A fabled specter or perhaps a bleeding Nun were
  images often sought after by those who fell
  victim to the supernatural influences of these
  books. Vampires, the Frankenstein monster,
  gargoyles, and demons of all kinds are
  inhabitants of Gothic works.
• However, as prolific and enduring as the Gothic
  genre has been, Gothic literature as a movement
  was a disappointment to the idealistic Romantic
  poets for the sentimental character idealized by
  Ann Radcliffe could not transcend into reality.

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Gothic, cont.

• The term Gothic comes from architectureit
  connotes a rough and primitive grandeur.
• In general, Gothic fiction is supposed to be
  dark, full of madness, superstition, and the
  spirit of revenge.
• In Gothic stories (much like the horror movies of
  today which descended from them) pity and terror
  are emotions to be savored for their own sake, as
  entertainment.
• For the purposes of Web 2413, we will focus
  primarily on two offshoots of the Gothic movement
  that are uniquely American American Gothic
  fiction and Southern Gothic fiction. Each of
  these sub-genres has characteristics that are
  unique.

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American Gothic

• The general characteristics of American Gothic
  fiction are as follows
• A dark, scary setting an old house or the deep
  dark woods usually serves as the back-drop for a
  Gothic tale.
• Meant to be frightening Gothic stories are
  designed to scare the reader. In much the same
  way as horror movies today, people used to read
  American Gothic fiction to be scared for funand
  many still do (Stephen King and Anne Rice are
  doing okay).
• Violence (esp. violent revenge) American Gothic
  fiction tends to be very violent. For example, in
  The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator not only
  kills, but dismembers the old man, and catches
  the blood and parts in a pan.
• Focus on the supernatural Forces from beyond
  this world (e.g., the Evil Eye) play a key part
  in Gothic tales.

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Southern Gothic

• Southern Gothic fiction is an adaptation of
  American Gothic fiction in the same way that
  American Gothic fiction is a descendant of
  European Gothic fiction.
• Writers in the American South, a region that lost
  the Civil War and endured Reconstruction, tend to
  put an even darker face on the Gothic tradition.
• In addition to being more violent, Southern
  Gothic fiction tends to incorporate traditional
  Southern themes and to focus on religion,
  especially Christianity, as well as (or instead
  of) the supernatural focus of American Gothic.
• Writers of Southern Gothic fiction include
  William Faulkner, Flannery OConnor, and Eudora
  Welty.

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Southern Gothic, cont.

• The general characteristics of Southern Gothic
  fiction are as follows
• Dark, scary setting an old plantation house is
  frequently the setting for Southern Gothic
  stories. The deep dark woods is another favorite
  haunt.
• Meant to be frightening/disturbing Southern
  Gothic writers tend to insert a darker, uglier
  edge to the scare most Gothic readers seek.
• Extremely violent Even more than American
  Gothic, Southern Gothic fiction relies on
  physical violence for its punch. For example, in
  A Good Man is Hard to Find, the entire family
  is murdered by the Misfit and his pals, including
  a newborn baby and two small children.
• Focus on Christian mythology Parallels to the
  Bible and references to Biblical stories and
  characters are seen.

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Realism (1880-1910)

• The American Realists sought to influence society
  through art.
• Perhaps the most influential American Realist was
  William Dean Howells. In addition to his own
  fiction, Howells was an important critic who had
  much to say about the development of late 19th
  Century American literature. If not for Howells,
  we might never have known writers like Hamlin
  Garland and Stephen Crane.
• Howells was a quintessential American Realist
  whose stories reflect all the characteristics of
  the movement. American Realists like William
  Dean Howells used their short stories to attempt
  to bring attention to social problems and to
  influence society for the better. These writers
  tended to focus on middle class characters.
  Their stories also emphasized the inner lives of
  their characters over external developments in
  plot. An example is Howellss much-anthologized
  story Editha.

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Realism, cont.

• The general characteristics of Realism are as
  follows
• A focus on middle class characters
• The author seeks to exert a positive social
  influence on his/her readers.
• Mimetic that is, the author makes the story seem
  true to life by using realistic details and
  settings.
• Internal focus that is, the author tends to
  focus more on the psychological development of
  his/her characters than on plot.

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Naturalism (1880-1910)

• Like American Gothic fiction, Naturalism came to
  the U.S. from Europe (specifically from France).
• The first true practitioner of Naturalism was
  French author Emile Zola, in such novels as
  Germinal, and Theresa Raquin. He codified the
  principles of Naturalism in The Experimental
  Novel in 1880.
• The literary movement of Naturalism attempts to
  apply scientific principles of objectivity and
  detachment to the study of human beings.
  Naturalist writers sought to portray their
  characters empirically, through the interplay of
  heredity and environment.
• Naturalist writers regarded human behavior as
  controlled by instinct, emotion, and/or social
  and economic conditions.

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Naturalism, cont.

• Naturalist writers rejected free will, adopting
  instead the biological determinism of Charles
  Darwin (Origin of Species, Descent of Man) and
  the economic determinism of Karl Marx (The
  Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital).
• Noted American Naturalist writers include Frank
  Norris (McTeague), Theodore Dreiser (Sister
  Carrie), and Jack London (The Call of the Wild).
• Jack London quit school at 14 to escape the
  poverty of his early life in San Francisco, and
  gain adventure. He was a sailor, a hobo, and a
  protester against unemployment. He later took a
  brief stab at college, and then joined the
  Klondike gold rush.

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Naturalism, cont.

• London educated himself at public libraries on
  the works of Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and
  Friedrich Nietzsche.
• A Naturalist and a Socialist, London became world
  famous through the publication of more than 50
  books, including The Call of the Wild and Martin
  Eden.
• Unlike Edgar Allan Poe, whose reputation as a
  writer and critic has risen over the course of
  the 20th Century, Londons literary stock has
  fallen since the 1920s.
• London is mostly known now for his Alaskan
  adventure novels.

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Naturalism, cont.

• The general characteristics of Naturalism are as
  follows
• Objective, scientific presentation Naturalist
  writers seek to portray their characters as
  products of heredity and environment.
• Determinism Free will is an illusion vainly
  sought after by humans in an indifferent, amoral
  universe.
• Theme of the beast within characters are lower
  class people whose lives are controlled by the
  animal passions of greed, lust, and desire for
  dominance over others.
• Environment seen as hostile in naturalistic
  stories, Nature (and also the city) is shown as
  being a kind of jungle, hostile to the
  insignificant human beings who venture into it (a
  common conflict in Naturalistic fiction is Man
  vs. Nature).

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Modernism (1910-1950)

• The literary movement of Modernism is largely
  centered around a reaction to World War I.
  Modernist writers were profoundly affected by the
  mass carnage that was inflicted on the
  battlefields of Europe.
• Perhaps more than any other literary movement,
  the development of Modernism is tied to place.
  Paris in the 1920s is the birthplace of
  Modernism as a conscious literary endeavor.
• Writers like Ernest Hemingway, F.Scott
  Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Ford
  Mattox Ford, Ezra Pound all knew each other, and
  were involved in the development and
  dissemination of each others work.
• These writers believed they could change the
  world for the better through the practice of
  their literary art.

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Modernism, cont.

• To understand Modernism, you must first
  understand its roots.
• At beginning of the 20th Century, Western
  Civilization was riding a wave of technological
  progress. Diseases were being cured and distances
  conquered. Mankind had learned to fly.
• Science and technology were seen as the key
  building blocks of a new society where all the
  ills of humanity would eventually be cured.
• Then along came World War I and that same
  technology was used to slaughter young men on a
  scale never before seen in human history.

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Modernism, cont.

• The war itselfbilled by national governments
  trying to get young men to enlist and fight as
  The War to End All Warscame to be seen for
  what it was a war fought for economic gain and
  territorial expansion.
• At the end of it all, a whole generation of
  combat-aged men had died on the battlefields of
  Europeand nothing was solved. The Treaty of
  Versailles (which ended the war) was quickly seen
  for the short-sighted, revenge-oriented document
  it truly was.
• The survivors of the warthe Lost Generation,
  as Hemingway calls them at the beginning of The
  Sun Also Riseslost faith in everything but
  themselves and their art.
• Since technology, national governments, and the
  church had all failed them, art was the only way
  left to go.

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Modernism, cont.

• The general characteristics of Modernism are as
  follows
• Make it new the Modernists wanted to make a
  clean break with the past and start over. They
  developed experimental new techniques (especially
  in narration and for ending stories) that changed
  the way fiction is written.
• Anti-authority the church and the national
  governments let the carnage of World War I take
  placeeven encouraged itso the Modernists
  portrayed both in a negative way.
• Carpe Diem (seize the day) the Modernists
  believed that the world should be experienced
  first hand. They felt that you should savor the
  physical pleasures of this world, since there was
  nothing at all in the next.
• Focus on the common man Modernism deals in large
  part with everyday people living ordinary lives.

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Post-Modernism (1950 to now)

• American Post-Modernists sought to write about
  life in late 20th Century America.
• Their writings were characterized by John Barth
  as the literature of exhaustion.
• These writers tend to write metafictionthat is,
  fiction that is aware of itself as fiction. They
  emphasize play, and games. And mass media
  pervades their works.
• An example of this is the short story
  Autobiography, by John Barth. In the story, it
  is the story itself that seeks to tell its own
  tale. The influence of mass media is evident in
  comments made by the story with reference to
  itself that reflect the common theme in American
  mass media culture that it is not responsible
  for its own birth or existence. And the entire
  short story evidences the theme of game-playing
  that is so evident in American Post-Modern
  fiction.

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Post-Modernism, cont.

• The general characteristics of Post-Modernism are
  as follows
• Metafiction that is, the story is aware of
  itself as fiction.
• Abandons verisimilitude that is, the author is
  not trying to make the story seem real.
  Instead, Post-Modern authors often call attention
  to the fact that their creations are just
  thatmade-up.
• Focus on mass media and/or consumer culture that
  is, the influence of television, radio, and
  movies is highlightedoften lampoonedand our
  throwaway culture is criticized.
• Parody that is, Post-Modern writers often take a
  work that has been previously published and
  change the form of the original so that the
  assumptions that underlay the original work are
  called into question.
• Focus on play and/or games that is, these works
  often feature games and different types of
  game-playing as themes.

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The Marginalized

• Finally, the short stories of those who have been
  marginalized has risen to prominence over the
  course of the 20th Century.
• And example of one of the many groups who have
  been pushed to the side by mainstream American
  culture are Latinasthat is, American women of
  Latin American descent.
• Latina writers like Sandra Cisneros (The House on
  Mango Street, Woman Hollering Creek)are now
  speaking out though their fiction in ways that
  were impossible in times past. These writers
  tend to write fiction which emphasizes their
  Latin American culture and ethnicity. The often
  tell their stories from a female perspective.
  Many times, Latinas use culture-based myths to
  help tell their tales. The oral tradition is
  often emphasized as an alternative to the
  written.

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Latina Literature

• The general characteristics of Latina Literature
  are as follows
• Feminist that is, the stories are often told
  from a female perspective and womens issues are
  emphasized.
• Myth used to subvert the patriarchy that is,
  Latina writers often use folktales to call
  attention to the traditional male dominance of
  Latin American culture and the havoc this
  dominance has wreaked on womens lives.
• Code-switching that is, English and Spanish are
  both used in the stories, many times in the same
  sentence.
• Anglo/Latino cultural tension that is, the
  historical tension between Anglo-American
  cultural traditions and Latin American cultural
  traditions is emphasized.

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An Example

• An example of an analysis of a short story,
  including a sample Formal Outline and Formal MLA
  Style essay, is provided in Unit 6.
• To view the example, please click on the
  sample6/index hyperlink directly below the link
  for this presentation.
• Pay special attention to the construction of the
  argument presented in the example.
• You must have an argumentincluding a thesis
  statement and topic sentencesin your Paper 2.