Basic to the human impulse is to tell and hear stories that existed long before the development of written literature. The short story, a modern literary genre, has a noble and ancient ancestry before Edgar Allan Poe made definite the elements of a short story in his introduction to Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Twice-told Tales (1830-1837) and before he proffered his narrative theory of Structure and Unique Effect (Tiempo, et al., 1977:37).
The ancestors of the short story came in the form of tales of the race, stories of incident and action, fantasy, wonder stories and the myths and legends about the origin of the world and the exploits of heroes developed into oral narratives (Meyer,1993:13). Before printing and books were available, the storyteller or epic teller or bard, was most welcome during winter nights, on long summer nights and during important community festivals and during wakes.
Without a doubt, the appeal of a story is strong and how it affects its listeners cannot be underestimated. Daughter of a vizier, and a scholar, the confident Scheherazade saved her own life and the women of her country from the avenging caliph Sharyar by her artistic narration of stories that evolved from the oral lore of India , Persia and Arabia . With her creativity and telling, Scheherazade not only impressed the caliph, he married her and changed his attitude towards women; and, when these tales became known to the Western world, they educated peoples about the manners and mores and the Moslem social code at the time (Burton & Zipes, 1991:58 587).
The early stories whether Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Arabian Chinese were simple, direct and more often, didactic even as tl novelist Michael Shaara, in our own time describes a story as power struggle between equal forces (Burroway, 1993:12). j samples of pure narrative, however, stories were not short story.
Janet Burroway (1993:5) defines a story as "a series of even recorded in their chronological order." Its features as a literary for are conflict, crisis and resolution. This pattern shapes a story ar the basic element, conflict, is necessary to keep the reader interest in what he is reading or to keep him interested enough to turn tt page. Conflict is the tension between two opposing forces. Clean Brooks and Robert Penn Warren in Understanding Fiction (195* distinguishes between external conflict (the characters' strugg against environment and against each other) and internal'conf/t (characters' struggles with themselves).
So, how does a story develop into a short story? A story becom< a short story'with the presence of plot, a series of events deliberate arranged to reveal their dramatic, thematic, and emotion significance. Critic Humphrey House in his commentaries on Aristot defines a story as "everything the reader needs to know to mal-coherent sense of the plot, and plotas the particular portion of tt" story the author chooses to present - the present tense of narrative (Burroway, 1993:12).
In the 19th-century, the German critic Gustav Freitag came t with the Freitag Pyramid after studying five-act dramas. Plot, h said, begins with an exposition (of the conflict), followed t complications (or nouement, the knotting up of the situation) leadin to a crisis, which is followed by a "falling action" or anticlima; resulting in a resolution (or denouement, "unknotting") (Burrowa 1993:7)
The trouble with this pyramid, Burroway (1993:7) says, is the it suggests visually that crisis comes in the middle of the 'pyramid shape of a plot. In a five-act drama the crisis is in the middle of th fifth act; and, in modern fiction, particularly the compact short stoi form, the falling action is likely to be brief or nonexistent. Ofter Burroway adds, the crisis action implies the resolution, which is nc stated but exists as an idea established in the reader's mind.
Whether we call a narrative from the bare bones structure of an anecdote, tale or fable, to the longer story and, later, more complex form, that is, the short story or its distinctive long form, the novel, we are reading fiction derived from the word, fictio which means a shaping, a counterfeiting.
When we are reading fiction, we become aware that the writer artfully arranges the details of a story primarily for our pleasure through his imaginative rendering of events and artful use of language that could affect us emotionally, reveal new insights and exercise our imaginations (Meyer, 1993:15). In the course of our reading fiction, we learn about the world we live in, connect with other peoples and realize that even as we learn about ourselves, we share common experiences more than we care admit.
The phrase, "exercise our imaginations" is crucial to our understanding that fiction, in particular, the short story, is imaginative writing and therefore an art. All of us come from different familial, social and educational backgrounds and therefore, are individuals who might interpret a short story in many ways as there exists parallel worlds and different dimensions in the advent of Einstein's theoryof'relativity'and the string theory of the universe.
As students, you are still learning how to read fiction. Our best advice is for you to look at the samples of the short story in this collection as serious literature as opposed to formula fiction or escape literature such as adventure, western, detective, science-fiction and romances. Be guided by your teacher in reading the selections carefully selected here to serve most, if not all, your intellectual, spiritual and emotional needs. After all, a short story not only is a source of pleasure but also a source of refuge or a liberation from monotony and boredom (Meyer, 1993:16).
Whatever your inclination, there is no escaping the fact that reading responsivelyopens vistas to new perspectives; and, as boon, a variety of plots, from the classic to the modern, and, a variety of writing styles beyond the writer's intention, meaning, and the quality of his work.
Every discipline has its own terminology. In reading fiction you will need to understand some basic but critical terms for its full understanding and appreciation. While certain literary concepts will be included in each of the short stories you will be reading, the following key literary terms need to be considered.
POINTOFVIEW
The question of who tells the story or from whose point of view the story is told is one of these practical concerns. Before a writer even begins to write the first word of his story, he decides the mode or perspective by which to tell his story presenting to the reader the characters, action, setting, and events that make up the narrative.
We give you two samples of point of view that will enable you to analyze a short story. Understand that each of these points of view have subclasses depending upon how the author wants to present the story to his reader. For purposes of an introductory literature course, however, knowing at least two will go a long way in your enjoyment of a story.
(1) Third Person Point of View
The third person point of view commonly known as the omniscient point of view \s the all-knowing narrator. He needs to know everything that needs to be known about the characters and events in the story. He is free to move at will in time and place, to shift from character to character, and to report (or conceal) their speech and actions. Moreover, the narrator has privileged access to the characters' thoughts and feelings and motives, as well as to their overt speech and actions (Abrams, 1958:145). In Ernest Hemingway's story, "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber", the omniscient point of view reveals to the reader the thoughts of the wounded lion. Only in fiction can this happen and because Hemingway has artfully arranged the events of his adventure-moral story in such a manner, the reader suspends his disbelief and, at the same time, sympathizes or feels concern over an animal that need only to live by its instincts to survive.
In some instances, the author uses a limited omniscient point of view where a single character tells the story within what he has experienced, thought and felt in, for example, Hemingway's "A Clean Well-Lighted Place". Later, writers Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner and James Joyce popularized the use of the stream-of-consciousness narration where the character's observations are presented as they intrude into his thoughts, feelings, and associations which constitute his total awareness (Abrams, 1959:146).
On the other hand, the detached point of view is used by Akutagawa in his story, "Rashomon". It is difficult to presume that the author's beliefs do not coincide with his characters the reader discovers to be unreliable. The events presented to the reader are what the characters experienced or heard within the fictional world Akutagawa created for them. Consequently, there is no resolution to this story because confessions can pass for the truth for it depends on which reality or truth it is and for whose reality it is. The Jamesian "center of consciousness" is absent here, or fails to work, it seems, in the story Rashomon that makes it challenging to analyze given the values we live by.
(2) First Person Point of View
The genius and master of the classic short story Edgar Allan Poe told "The Tell-Tale Heart" in the first person point of view. His delusional character remains nameless throughout the story but one factor that makes the story using this point of view effective is the reader is allowed to have access to his thoughts and feelings, thus, the reader's involvement in the story's action.
The opening sentence, most often the sign of an experienced writer, "True!—nervous—very, very nervous I had been and am; but why will you call me mad?" immediately captures the reader's attention and suggests a psychoanalytic approach to reading the story. Moving forward in the narration, another dimension to the story maybe inferred because the reader moves with the character who wants to commit the perfect crime against his, albeit unconsciously perceived, father or authority figure who has the 'evil eye' but for the author's contrary opinion that he expects the reader to realize at the end of the story. The absence [or threat] of a father figure in the story can be best discussed along with Sophocles's play, Oedipus Rex. For all its effectiveness and advantages, the first person point of view can be limiting because the reader gets to know only the point of view's experiences, his/her motives, and through his dialog' with other characters.
CHARACTER
Characters possess moral, dispositional and emotional qualit (Abrams, 1959:22-23). They people or humanize the story. Throu dialog and through action, the character's desires and moral nati through his speech and action constitute his motivation. The nove E.M. Forster in Aspects of the Novel'(1927) popularized the tern flat characteror type, or two dimensional; and, round character complex in temperament and motivation.
In the analysis of character, the student needs to character! or establish the distinctive characters of a person in the story , showing and telling (Abrams, 1958:23). In showing, the autf presents the characters talking and acting and leaves the reader see through what motives and dispositions lay behind what they s and do. In telling, the author intervenes authoritatively in order describe, and often to evaluate, the motives and dispositional qualiti of the characters (Abrams, 1958:23).
In Maupaussant's story "Moonlight," we see the main charact Abbe Marignan at work and at home and we infer that he is a litei man and we get to understand his moral judgments and, later, \ epiphany: from the Greek epiphainein. "to show forth" meanii some moment of insight, discovery, or revelation by which character's life, or view of life, is greatly altered (Kennedy ai Gioia, 1999:11).
In the charming, short narrative, "Better Than To Burr reminiscent of Raymond Carver's writing style and Jorge Luis Borge poetic sense, author Lispector's characterization of the ma character makes for an excellent example of how economical writii can be effective in depicting the main character's pursuit of happine who goes against her family's wishes, her religion and the dictat of society. Aside from this, Lispector's flair for drama and h iy0/ra/7/sf handling of the female character are evident througho the narrative. Another compact story, this time using one after tl other the simple and past perfect tenses is Alice Walker's "Tt Flowers." It matches Lispector's mode of characterization of My< as innocent and carefree until she stumbles on the skeletal remaii of a man long dead.
On the other hand, the study of character is interdepende with the study of plot. Henry James said, "What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?7'The main character or protagonists alternatively called the hero [or heroine] and the opposing character is known as the antagonist How the story unravels itself ultimately depends on how the characters respond to events in their fictiofial world.
SETTING
The setting of a story is the locale, historical time, and social circumstances in which its action happens; the setting of an episode or scene within a work is the particular physical location in which it takes place (Abrams, 1958:172). The fable, "The Appointment in Samarra " is set in ancient Baghdad Baghdad Baghdad
A writer, in other words, must anchor his story to a place to make the reader understand what James calls "solidity of specification" to give that semblance of realism in fiction (Blair, 1966:615). In a theatrical production, "setting" is synonymous with decor and mise en scene, French terms denoting the scenery and the properties on the stage.
THEME
Theme is the general claim, or doctrine implicitly or explicitly applied in a narrative work and made persuasive to the reader. Theme is sometimes interchangeably used with motifhbrams defines motif as "an element, a type of incident, device, reference, or formula recurring frequently in literature" (Abrams, 1958: 110).
The short story comments on human values and interprets this slice of life regardless of our disagreement with the author's opinion or ideas about life. Theories on literature abound but we must remember that our values, opinions and beliefs may vary although there will always be common grounds when we read fiction. But, when we read fiction, we should not trivialize it by looking for messages or truths or philosophies alone or those that match our own because the short story, artistically crafted by an author has many layers of meaning.
The student should read knowing that the story is a un/ty(art.\sk\c whole); and, he/she must realize that connotative meaning is subject to the story's denotative meaning as he makes sense of the story. The teacher, for his part, should show the relation between language and meaning, between words and what they refer to, surely a complex one, because language is a powerful system of meaning-making; and, most important of all is that, stories structure the meanings by which a culture lives (Cohan & Shires, 1988:1 & 3). For further discussion of theme and meaning, the student may refer to Understanding Poetry by Brooks and Warren (1960:340-343) and Aesthetics by Beardsley (1958:401-411); "Of Grammatology" by Derrida (2001:1822-1830), "Death of an Author" by Barthes (2001:1466-1470) and "Interpretation Between Text and Reader" by Iser (2001:1673-1682) in The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism (2001).
STYLE
Style is how an author expresses him/herself through language whether this is in prose or in poetry. The style of a short story or author may be analyzed in terms of the characteristic modes of its diction, or choice of words; its sentence structure and syntax; the density and types of its figurative language; the patterns of its rhythm, component sounds, and other formal features; and its rhetorical aims and devices (Abrams, 1959:181).
By Christine F. Godinez-Ortega
By Christine F. Godinez-Ortega
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