A Short History of the Short Story: Western and Asian Traditions
By Gulnaz Fatma
5/5
()
About this ebook
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
Gulnaz Fatma
Gulnaz Fatma, PhD is an Indian writer and author. She is a research scholar in the Department of English at Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh, India. Fatma is a dynamic personality in literature studies who has published many articles in national and international journals. She is the author of a critical book titled A Short History of the Short Story: Western and Asian Traditions published by Modern History Press, USA, and she is currently writing a novel on the themes of immigration and multiculturalism.
Related to A Short History of the Short Story
Related ebooks
Summary and Analysis of How to Read Literature Like a Professor: Based on the Book by Thomas C. Foster Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Short Stories for English Courses Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Student's Guide to Literature Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indian Short Story in English, 1835 -2008 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShort Story Writing A Practical Treatise on the Art of The Short Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of the Short Story: 100 Classic Masterpieces Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWriting Style Guide: Literary Techniques Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary and Analysis of "The God of Small Things" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings100 Great Short Stories: Selections from Poe, London, Twain, Melville, Kipling, Dickens, Joyce and many more Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ideas About Writing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Write Great Narrative Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Micro Fiction: Writing 100-Word Stories (Drabbles) for Magazines and Contests Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5A Study Guide for Sandra Cisneros's "My Lucy Friend Who Smells Like Corn" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Introduction to the Study of Literature (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How To Write And Sell Short Stories: A Fiction Writing Guide For Writers: Books for Writers and Authors, #5 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Art & Craft of the Short Story Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5How to Write Short Stories - With Samples Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Write a Story: Second Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Study Guide for Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants" Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Guide to Literary Terms (MAXNotes Literature Guides) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings101 Creative Writing Exercises (Adventures in Writing) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Crafting the Short Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnglish Language, Literature and Creative Writing: A Practical Guide for Students Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Study Guide for Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "Yellow Wallpaper" Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alice Munro’s Miraculous Art: Critical Essays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings21 World Famous Short Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Criticism For You
The 48 Laws of Power: by Robert Greene | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Reader’s Companion to J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Seduction: by Robert Greene | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Man's Search for Meaning: by Viktor E. Frankl | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5As I Lay Dying Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oscar Wilde: The Unrepentant Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lincoln Lawyer: A Mysterious Profile Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings12 Rules For Life: by Jordan Peterson | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.by Brené Brown | Conversation Starters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Circe: by Madeline Miller | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killers of the Flower Moon: by David Grann | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Verity: by Colleen Hoover | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself by Michael A. Singer | Conversation Starters Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Secret History: by Donna Tartt | Conversation Starters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOne Hundred Years of Solitude: A Novel by Gabriel Garcia Márquez | Conversation Starters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain | Conversation Starters Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Letters to a Young Poet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Alone: by Kristin Hannah | Conversation Starters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of Virtues Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for A Short History of the Short Story
3 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In fewer than fifty pages, author Glunaz Fatma successfully gives us the basic history of short fiction stories from Western and Asian Traditions. Being an author of short stories myself, I was very eager to review this book courtesy of Modern History Press. Many famous writers, such as H.G. Wells, Edgar Allan Poe, Alphonse Daudet, Miguel de Cervantes, Shirley Jackson, Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Rabindranath Tagore, and many others, have written numerous short stories as it gives them more freedom to express their creativeness without being classified by a genre. Just like a novel, a short story must has a well-written plot that leads to a conclusion. A short story is between 1,000 to 20,000 words. Anything over is either a novella or a novel, and anything under is considered as short stories or flash fiction. What were some of the earliest short stories? Author Glunaz Fatma suggests that one of the earliest short stories is Homer's Odyssey, which is a mandatory read in most high schools. Of course there are also fables, myths, and fairy tales that have been around probably even longer. A Short History of the Short Story is written in laymen terms so anybody from any background can read it. Every high school student has to read and do homework from a short story text book and I think this book would make a good companion to it. I recommend the book to students, teachers, schools and all scholars.
Book preview
A Short History of the Short Story - Gulnaz Fatma
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