History of Short Story Essay Example
History of Short Story Essay Example

History of Short Story Essay Example

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The short story has a rich history rooted in the oral tradition of storytelling. It was influenced by early written tales such as Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Boccaccio's Decameron, as well as the French translation of The Thousand and One Nights. In the 19th century, Grimm's Fairy Tales and Hawthorne's Twice Told Tales set standards for gothic short fiction, while Hardy's Wessex Tales found success in Britain. This period also saw an increased demand for short fiction due to literary magazines and journals. However, compared to novels, the marketability of short stories has declined since then, despite their popularity in the mid-20th century.

According to Poe, a successful short story must create a unique effect through carefully chosen incidents that support that effect. Every word should contribute to a predetermined design, and action is essential in creating a compelling narrative. Hardy bel

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ieved that a story must be exceptional enough to justify its telling.

This text explores how modern short fiction challenges the conventions of 19th-century literature in various ways: plot structure, narration style, character development, and language usage. Short stories today aim to capture isolated moments or disconnected individuals rather than following traditional plots with clear beginnings, middles, and ends. The role of the narrator becomes uncertain as focus shifts towards characters' inner experiences and subjective insights.
In modern short fiction, language is used to establish unity by employing symbolism, multiple narrative voices, indirect language, and stream-of-consciousness techniques. These stories frequently depict life as fragmented representations of existence. Moreover, modern short fiction showcases self-awareness and contemplation on the art form of storytelling itself.

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