Handout and materials: The Short Story

THE SHORT STORY

1. ?...it would be misleading to think that a short story is simply a piece of prose fiction that is Short, a sort of condensed novel. For the short story has aims, features, and qualities of its own, which distinguish it significantly, in terms besides length, from other prose fiction.?

2. ?In the short story... they (fictional elements) are handled in a way peculiar to this form of fiction. What determines the handling is the shortness of the story Plot is often minimized; in its place is a situation, and the interest of the story lies in the way characters react to it. Character must be presented economically Only those traits are mentioned which are relevant to the situation, and even these are not revealed separately but are inherent in the action. Setting is also treated economically. A few well-chosen details can lay the scene, reveal character, and indicate the situation. A definite point of view is strictly maintained. Ideas may be present, but are usually inherent in character, situation and action. Language is used for maximum effect. Every word counts. Charged with suggestiveness the language has some of the evocative power, as well as the compression, of poetry.'

3. E.A. Poe: ?A skillful artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents; but having conceived, with deliberate care, a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out, he then invents such incidents--he then combines such events as may best aid him in establishing this preconceived effect. ... In the whole composition there should be no word written, of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one preestablished design. ...a picture is at length painted which leaves in the mind of him who contemplates it with a kindred art, a sense of the fullest satisfaction.?

4. ?...writing that is tightly packed with meaning and rich in suggestion cannot be read superficially; art has gone into its creation, and its values will be fully revealed, Poe says, only to ?him who contemplates it with a kindred art.? More than any other literary form except poetry, the short story demands of the reader an intellectual and imaginative alertness, a capacity and a willingness to make inferences from what little data the author presents.?