IED 281 THE SHORT STORY
Asst. Prof. Dr. Sinan Akıllı
WHAT IS THE SHORT STORY?
• Short Story, a fictional prose tale of no
specified length, but too short to be
published as a volume on its own, as novels
usually are. A short story will normally
concentrate on a single event with only one
or two characters, more economically than a
novel's sustained exploration of social
background.
– Chris Baldick, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of
Literary Terms
WHAT IS THE SHORT STORY?
• Short Story: A short story is a brief work of prose
fiction, and most of the terms for analyzing the
component elements, the types, and the narrative
techniques of the novel are applicable to the short
story as well. The short story differs from the
anecdote—the unelaborated narration of a single
incident—in that, like the novel, it organizes the
action, thought, and dialogue of its characters into the
artful pattern of a plot, directed toward particular
effects on an audience.
– M. H. Abrams & Geoffrey Galt Harpham, A Glossary of
Literary Terms
WHAT IS THE SHORT STORY?
• In athletic terms, if we take the novella as a ‘middledistance’ book story, then the short story comes into
the 100/200 metre class. Nevertheless, there are very
long short-stories and very short ones. D. H.
Lawrence's The Fox (1923) is about 3o,ooo words;
Kleist's ghost story Das Bettelweib von Locarno (1810)
is only 800 words. In his preface to his Complete Short
Stories Somerset Maugham remarks that the shortest
item runs to about 1,600 words and the longest to
about 20,000 words. The vast majority of short stories
would fall somewhere between the two.
– J.A. Cuddon, The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and
Literary Theory
WHAT IS THE SHORT STORY?
• The literary form short story is usually defined
as a brief fictional prose narrative, often
involving one connected episode. […] Unity of
effect is the story’s most characteristic
feature. […] The short story is a concentrated
form, dependent for its success on feeling and
suggestion.
– Ann Charters, The Story and Its Writer
WHAT IS THE SHORT STORY?
• Concentrated work of fictional prose, usually
between 1,600-20,000 words in length,
involving one connected episode, artistically
organized and constructed, directed towards
creating a unified emotional and intellectual
effect on the reader by way of feeling and
suggestion, and not published as a volume on
its own.
WHAT IS THE SHORT STORY?
• Concentrated (intensive use of literary devices: begins in
medias res or close to climax; uses symbols instead of
lengthy description of social-historical background and/or
characters)
• fictional (not factual, re-presentational not presentational)
• prose (narrative style, prose devices)
• one connected episode (no sub-plots)
• artistically organized and constructed (setting, plot
structure,
action,
flashbacks,
characters
and
characterization, symbols etc.)
• unified emotional and intellectual effect (theme, message,
thesis)
• on the reader by way of feeling and suggestion (point of
view, tone, mood, language, style)
HISTORY OF THE SHORT STORY
• Probably the most ancient of all literary forms;
the term covers everything from the fable,
folk-tale or fairy story to such sophisticated
and highly developed structures as the
German novelle via the stories of the
Decameron. Like the epic, short fiction goes
back in time far beyond the art of writing.
HISTORY OF THE SHORT STORY
• It was only at the beginning of the nineteenth
century that short fiction, because of the
requirements of magazines of everwidening
circulation, came into its own and attracted
notable writers to practise it, like Pushkin, Edgar
Allan Poe, Henry James, Anton Chekhov, James
Joyce, Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka and D. H.
Lawrence, as well as those like Maupassant and
Katherine Mansfield who excelled in this
particular genre.
HISTORY OF THE SHORT STORY
• Earliest tales are of oral tradition, the creation
myths.
• Next important stage, the period beast fables:
animals are shown acting like humans to teach
a moral lesson. Aesop (620-560 BC)
• Religious parable: a short story with a moral
twist, for instance, Cain and Abel, the prodigal
son.
HISTORY OF THE SHORT STORY
• Medieval period: short narratives mostly in verse.
Heroic episodes (Battle of Maldon) and lowlife comic
tales of French origin fabliaux.
• Eastern stories being introduced to Europe. (Arabian
Nights)
• Prose usually reserved for devotional and instructional
pieces until the 14th century.
• Giovanni Boccaccio’s short prose tales Decameron
(1353) , Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1387).
Pleasure and moral instruction. Framed-tale device.
• Moral and religious values in narratives continue
during the Renaissance.
HISTORY OF THE SHORT STORY
• 18th century, secularization, fictional narratives
began to evolve into forms we recognize as close
relations of modern stories and novels.
• These forms developed in periodicals popular
with readers from the emerging middle class who
had the time and money to enjoy them.
• Periodicals became a market for professional
writers of stories (character sketches, satires,
gothic tales, adventure stories).
HISTORY OF THE SHORT STORY
• Romantic period: Originality and imagination valued
above all other qualities in writing. Horror stories and
criminal stories became popular.
• The short story did not appear until the nineteenth
century, when original prose works emerged, in which
every word chosen and every detail of description and
characterization contributed to a unified impression.
• Germans first experimented with this new form.
Brothers Grimm are the most famous German writers
in early 19th century. They published a collection of folk
and fairy tales.
HISTORY OF THE SHORT STORY
• In the USA: Washington Irving (1783-1856)
was inspired by German writers and created
American versions of European folktales. “Rip
Van Winkle” and “The Legend of the Sleepy
Hollow,” earliest short stories appeared in
1819-20.
• Sir Walter Scott published the first modern
short story in England: “The Two Drovers”
HISTORY OF THE SHORT STORY
• Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe are
credited as the first American writers to create
a considerable number of successful short
stories.
• Poe was the first person to theorize on the
short story.
• Herman Melville
HISTORY OF THE SHORT STORY
• Mid-19th century romanticism gave way to
realism.
• Stories that reflected everyday reality. Characters’
psychology is manifested in the things said and
done by characters themselves.
• Late 19th century masters of the short story
proper:
– Americans: Henry James, Edith Wharton, Stephen
Crane, Jack London
– Europeans: Guy de Maupassant (French), and Anton
Chekov (Russian)
HISTORY OF THE SHORT STORY
• Maupassant: tightly organized plots, conclude with
decisive action. Details of characters’ physical
appearance given in narrative.
• Chekov: Plots include less decisive action.
Dramatization of characters’ psychology and mood.
• Modernist writers of early 20th century were influenced
by Chekov’s style. Interiorized plot.
– European Modernists: Joseph Conrad, Virginia Woolf,
James Joyce, Franz Kafka, D.H. Lawrence, Katherine
Mansfield
– American Modernists: William Faulkner, Ernest
Hemingway
HISTORY OF THE SHORT STORY
• The form has flourished especially in America;
Frank O’Connor has called it “the national art
form,” and its American masters include (in
addition to the writers mentioned above)
Mark Twain, William Faulkner, Katherine Anne
Porter, Eudora Welty, Flannery O’Connor, John
O’Hara, J. F. Powers, John Cheever, and J. D.
Salinger.
HISTORY OF THE SHORT STORY
• Two types of stories being written today:
• Traditional stories: descending from Poe and
Maupassant, which are plotted and closed.
• Modern stories: descending from Chekhov
and Joyce, which are less plotted and more
open.
COMPONENTS OF A SHORT STORY
• Plot: The sequence of related events composing the
narrative,
• Characters: The persons who play their parts in the
narrative.
• Setting: The place and time in which the story’s action
occurs.
• Point of view: Establishes a consistent perspective on
the characters and their actions.
• Style: The way the author uses the resources of
language.
• Theme: The unifying idea that brings to life all other
elements of fiction.
PLOT
• The sequence of events in a story and their relation to one
another. Usually they are related by causation.
• It sustains the illusion of reality.
• Plot can be carried forwards not only by the description of
events, but also by the outgrowth of a character’s will, the
dialogs between characters, an apparent accident or fate,
and even the setting.
• It can proceed chronologically or by flashbacks, and dream
sequences.
• The beginning sets up the problem or conflict; the middle is
where various complications that prolong the suspense are
introduced; the end resolves the conflict to a greater or
lesser degree.
PLOT
• Exposition: Introduces characters, scene, time and
situation. Usually brief.
– PART OF THE NARRATIVE BUT NOT PART OF THE PLOT
• Rising Action: The dramatization of events that
complicate the situation and gradually intensify the
conflict.
• Climax: The turning point of the story, its emotional
high point. The pace of the narration breaks off at this
point.
• Falling Action: The problem or conflict proceeds toward
resolution.
• Resolution/Denouement: The final paragraph. Usually
brief. Often contains an element of surprise.
PLOT STRUCTURES
CHARACTERS
• The chief character in a plot, on whom our
interest centers, is called the protagonist (or
alternatively, the hero or heroine), and if the plot
is such that he or she is pitted against an
important opponent, that character is called the
antagonist.
• A character in a work who, by sharp contrast,
serves to stress and highlight the distinctive
temperament of the protagonist is termed a foil.
CHARACTERIZATION
• Created through description (appearance) and
action (verbal and dramatic).
• Flat character (flat, passive)
• Round character (more real, capable of
alternatives, active)
• Static character (does not change)
• Dynamic character (changes)
SETTING
• Helps make the characters seem real.
• Setting must have a dramatic use, to be most
effective must affect character or plot.
• Might have symbolic function.
POINT OF VIEW
• The way the story is told.
• Should be in accordance with the complete
dramatic ordering of the subject.
• First person narrator: “I”
– Narrator a participant in the story
• A major character
• A minor character
• Third person narrator: “he,” “she,” “they”
– Narrator a nonparticipant in the story
• Omniscient (seeing into all characters)
• Limited omniscient (seeing into one or two characters)
FIRST-PERSON NARRATOR
• Can move freely in the fictional world.
• Has no way of understanding the other
fictional characters except by observation of
what they say and do.
• The authority of FPN is limited.
• Only an eyewitness.
THIRD-PERSON NARRATOR
• Omniscient TPN knows all there is to know
about all the characters, both inside and out.
• May be judgmental or impartial.
STYLE
• The specific way the author uses language in narration.
• Made up of various elements including,
• Tone: the way the writer uses the words to convey
unstated attitudes toward the subject. Humorous,
serious, excited, compassionate
• Irony: Belief in and exploitation of the difference and
distance between words (verbal irony) and events
(situational irony) and their contexts.
• Symbols: An object, animate or inanimate, that stands
for something else. Symbols are specific images (visual
ideas) that tell more than paraphrases.
THEME
•
•
•
•
A generalization about the meaning of a story.
What the story is about.
Usually a word or phrase.
The theme must be true to any and all of the
specific details in the narrative.
• All other elements of fiction must be
accounted for in determining the theme.
HOW TO ANALYZE A SHORT STORY
• EXPOSITION
– What do we learn about the characters that
prepares us for the conflict in the story?
– Where and when the story is set? Is the setting
essential to the working of the story? How does
the setting contribute to the story’s mood?
– What is the significance of the title of the story?
How does it prepare us for the action?
HOW TO ANALYZE A SHORT STORY
• CHARACTERIZATION
– Who is the protagonist? What are his/her main
personal characteristics?
– Do we tend to admire/dislike the protagonist? If so, on
what basis?
– Who is/are the antagonist(s) and foil(s), if any?
– Which characters are round/flat and dynamic/static?
– Are the characters described or do we understand
them by their actions and dialog?
– Are their names significant, do they tell about the
characters?
– Does any one character seem to speak for the author?
HOW TO ANALYZE A SHORT STORY
• PLOT
– What is the plot structure?
– What is over when the story is over? Has a central conflict
been solved?
– Is the primary change in external circumstances (health,
well-being, wealth, power, relationships) or is it primarily
internal (moral character, philosophical outlook, emotional
maturity etc.)?
– Does the story contain strong elements of suspense
(anticipation, curiosity)?
– Does the protagonist control his/her fate through his/her
moral decisions? Is his/fate controlled by other characters,
environment, good or bad luck, divine providence?
HOW TO ANALYZE A SHORT STORY
• CONFLICTS
– What is the central conflict? Is it external or
internal?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
[wo]man vs. nature
[wo]man vs. [wo]man
[wo]man vs. the environment
[wo]man vs. machines/technology
[wo]man vs. the supernatural
[wo]man vs. self
[wo]man vs. god/religion
HOW TO ANALYZE A SHORT STORY
• NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE
– Is the entire plot narrated in the story? Anything omitted
and left for the reader to infer?
– Is the narration in chronological order? Any flashbacks? If
so, how would the story change without them?
– What is the point of view? If FPN, is the narrator the
protagonist, a minor character, an observer? If TPN, is the
narrator which character(s) are in focus, is the attitude
‘objective’?
– Is the narrator conscious of the act of telling a story?
– What elements of plot are dramatized and what are
narrated?
– Do we identify with one or more of the characters? Does
the author encourage emotional involvement?
HOW TO ANALYZE A SHORT STORY
• STYLE, DICTION, LANGUAGE
– What devices of language (figures of speech or
unusual vocabulary) are used to set mood in the
story?
– Do all characters use the same language?
– Any recurring words or patterns of imagery?
– Do any objects seem to be symbolic? How do they
function in the story?
– Is the dialog colloquial? Or is it stylized or unusual?
What purpose is served by unrealistic dialog?
– Are there sentences too long or complex? Is the
vocabulary highly unusual?
HOW TO ANALYZE A SHORT STORY
• THEME & MESSAGE
– Does the story embody a central theme, a moral
or intellectual problem that can be abstracted
from the concrete action?
– Is the story organized around a message? What is
that message? Is it explicitly stated in the story or
is it implicit so that it needs to be inferred by the
reader?
HOW TO ANALYZE A SHORT STORY
• MODE AND GENRE
– Does the story belong more or less to any of the
traditional classes of fiction such as: the realistic
novel, the Gothic romance, the tale of adventure,
the fairy tale, or science fiction.
– Is the story a retelling of some older story, a folk
tale, a story from mythology etc.