by Lisa M. Hase

Created on: July 28, 2008

Development of the Short Story as a Genre:

The first major trend in the development of the short story as an art form, according to Sven Birkerts, is that of myths and legends, which utilize larger than life events and simple characters. Examples of myth abound in every culture and are used to educate or edify an audience. One such myth included is that which explains the origins of one of the snake's attributes is entitled How the Snake Got Poison. Originally passed down as oral tradition, this myth was eventually collected in written form by Zora Neale Hurston.

Legends also include supernatural events but differ from myth in that they are believed to be based on historical truth. They are used most often to describe the lives and events of local heroes or, more commonly, of saints. The story of The Careless Rabbi, translated by Olga Marx, is an Israeli legend and explains how the seemingly foolish behavior of a Rabbi during a Sabbath meal is later magically connected to a similar event that saves the Jews from an edict directed against them.

The second major trend are stories using realism to represent actual circumstances or events. De Maupassant is an author well known for his realist mode and the story The Necklace exemplifies this technique. The characters, the settings and the action are all realistic and likely to have occurred.

The style of F. Scott Fitzgerald in the story Babylon Revisited can also be described as realistic and is likely based on actual events of the 1920's.

The third major trend in the art form of short story writing emphasizes the internal world of a main character. Inner dialogues and ponderings, or streams-of-consciousness, are the threads that weave these stories together beginning to end. A very good example of such a story is Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield in which we are invited to spend an afternoon in the consciousness of the main character as she enjoys an afternoon in a park.

Probably the best known writer in this style is James Joyce and a good example of his stream of consciousness style can be found in the story Araby about a young boy's pursuit of a self important task and how he perceives interruptions to that pursuit. For example, the epiphanic moment in James Joyce's story Araby comes in the last lines of the story when the main character recognizes himself as "a creature driven and derided by vanity" (494). The entire story until this point describes the futile effort on the part of the main character to achieve something he desperately believes he must achieve, and illusion he clings to despite interruptions of banality. In his focused pursuit it is impossible to see the role he plays in is own illusion until failure is met and he is left with the reality of his situation, his epiphany.

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