Short StoryI. Three forms of fiction—short

Short Story
    Good morning. Today, we shall talk about an important and interesting literary style— short story, which is fictional work depicting one character’s inner conflict or conflict with others, usually having one thematic focus. Short stories generally produce a single, focused emotional and intellectual response in the reader. Novels, by contrast, usually depict conflicts among many characters developed through a variety of episodes, stimulating a complexity of responses in the reader. The short story form ranges from "short shorts," which run in length from a sentence to four pages, to novellas that can easily be 100 pages long and exhibit characteristics of both the short story and the novel. Because some works straddle the definitional lines of these three forms of fiction—short story, novella, and novel — the terms should be regarded as approximate rather than absolute.
    First, we need to learn the elements of the short story. The basic elements of the short story include setting, including time and place, conflict, character, and theme. Most stories are set in present day, but settings of place vary from rural to urban. The reader follows the main character or protagonist in a conflict with another character or antagonist or in an internal conflict with his own antagonistic psychological or spiritual force. Characters range from familiar stereotypes, such as the aggressive businessman and the lonely housewife, to archetypal characters, such as the rebel, the scapegoat, the alter ego, and those engaged in some sort of search. The subject of a short story is often mistaken for its theme. Common subjects for modern short fiction include race, ethnic status, gender, class, and social issues such as poverty, drugs, violence, and divorce. These subjects allow the writer to comment upon the larger theme that is the heart of the fictional work. Some of the major themes of 20th-century short stories, as well as longer forms of fiction, are human isolation, alienation, and personal trauma, such as anxiety; love and hate; male-female relationships; family and the conflict of generations; mortality; spiritual struggles; and even the relationship between life and art.
    Secondly, we shall come to find out a way to appreciate the art of the short story. The art of the short story employs the techniques of point of view, style, plot and structure, and a wide range of devices that stimulate emotional, imaginative, and intellectual responses in the reader. The writer’s choice and control of these techniques determines the reader’s overall experience. Let’s analyze these techniques one by one.
    What’s point of view? The three basic point-of-view techniques are omniscient, or the author’s point of view, first person — the author lets one of his characters narrate, and central intelligence — the author filters the narrative through the perceptions of a single character. A seldom-used point-of-view technique is the objective — the author poses as a purely objective observer, never giving the reader access to a character’s thoughts.
    Then, what does style mean? Style is the author’s careful choice of words and arrangement of words, sentences, and paragraphs to produce a specific effect on the reader. An author’s style evolves out of the chosen point-of-view technique. The omniscient point of view produces a relatively complex style; the first-person point of view results in a simple style if it is recorded as "spoken", more complex if written; and central intelligence generates a style that typically is slightly elevated above the intelligence level of the focal character. The simple, economical style of American Ernest Hemingway and his selection of images reveal subtle shifts in his characters’ psychological states. Hemingway’s style was particularly effective first-person narration.
    In the following session, we shall talk about plot and structure. There is a wide range of plot forms and structures found in the short story. A traditional plot has a beginning (introduction of the problem), middle (development of the problem), and an end (resolution of the problem). Some writers venture into less predictable plots, which might even seem to be plotless. Some authors complicate the structure of their plots with the use of flashbacks and flash-forwards; with a frame of a story within a story; or with subplots or double plots which means two or more equally important narratives progressing simultaneously. Besides, another unique technique called deliberate ambiguity or open-endedness is a plot feature found in many modern stories. The surprise endings of French author Guy de Maupassant, as in his 1884 story The Necklace, influenced many commercial writers but also some literary ones. At the turn of the century, American author O. Henry became famous for his paradoxical style and surprise endings, such as in A Gift of the Magi.
    To conclude the art of the short story, we must pay due attention to rhetorical devices. Writers employ a wide range of rhetorical devices for contrast and emphasis, including paradox, metaphor, patterns of imagery, repeated motifs, symbolism, and irony. The power of Katherine Anne Porter’s Flowering Judas derives in part from her overt use of symbolism. Irony provides the reader with a contrast between reality and the fallibility of human perception, which is at the heart of most modern fiction. American writer Flannery O’Connor is a master of irony, as in the story A Good Man Is Hard to Find in which a manipulative grandmother imposes her will on a situation, with the ironic result that she and her family are killed by escaped convicts.
    To sum up, in today’s lecture, we mainly focus on one literary style — the short story, and further elaborate on its basic elements and writing art. The basic elements of the short story include setting, conflict, character, and theme. The art of the short story employs the techniques of point of view, style, plot and structure, and a wide range of devices. So the writer’s choice and control of these techniques determines the quality of his or her short story.