Talking Leaves: Contemporary Native American Short Stories

In the article, the aspects and types of such stylistic device as foregrounding are investigated in the short stories of contemporary American writers. The quantitative aspect of foregrounding prevails in flash fiction stories which is realized by means of stylistic convergence and parallelism. Convergences are mainly used in strong positions, especially in the endings, as in the stories by J. Updike, D. Galef, D.Eggers. The qualitative aspect of foregrounding is expressed with the help of tropes such as metaphor, simile and oxymoron which are also present in strong positions – titles, beginnings, endings (the stories by G. Paley, D. Galef, J. Updike). The idea of tolerance, sympathy, understanding is dominant in many flash fiction stories. Foregrounding, especially in the strong positions of the stories, emphasizes this idea, thus producing a strong pragmatic, emotional effect. Due to such device in the endings many flash fiction stories can be called modern parables of life, love, justice.

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Personality and affect in Hungarian and American short stories

Poetics ◽

10.1016/0304-422x(88)90042-3 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 17 (4-5) ◽

pp. 385-394

Author(s):

Seymour Rosenberg

Keyword(s):

Short Stories ◽

American Short Stories

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The Anthology Game

10.5406/illinois/9780252036293.003.0032 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Jonathan R. Eller

Keyword(s):

Short Stories ◽

Science Fiction ◽

Wide Range ◽

Ray Bradbury ◽

Failed Attempt ◽

The Impact ◽

American Short Stories

This chapter examines Ray Bradbury's failed attempt to publish a mainstream literary anthology of science fiction stories centered on Mars. The development of the Illinois novel was slowed by Bradbury's increased focus on the science fiction stories he was writing and revising with more and more frequency. Despite Don Congdon's influence with a wide range of editors, these stories were still not selling to the major magazines at all. What sustained both his spirit and his reputation during this period was his almost phenomenal success with the premier award anthologies of the day such as the Best American Short Stories annual and the O. Henry Prize Stories. This chapter considers the impact of Bradbury's anthology awards on his writing life by focusing on his membership in the leftist poetry magazine California Quarterly, founded by Dolph Sharp and others. It also discusses Bradbury's idea for an anthology that would consist of twenty-five science fiction stories, a project that he called “The Martian Chronicles. Edited by Ray Bradbury” and never came to fruition.

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Spanish-American Short Stories

Modern Language Journal ◽

10.2307/313721 ◽

1921 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 113

Author(s):

Joel Hatheway ◽

Chas. Alfred Turrell

Keyword(s):

Short Stories ◽

Spanish American ◽

American Short Stories

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“The Snows of Kilimanjaro”: A Revaluation

PMLA ◽

10.2307/460554 ◽

1961 ◽

Vol 76 (5) ◽

pp. 601-607

Author(s):

Oliver Evans

Keyword(s):

Short Stories ◽

Caroline Gordon ◽

Allen Tate ◽

New Critics ◽

American Short Stories

When “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” first appeared in Esquire (August 1936), it attracted immediate attention. It was promptly reprinted (in Best American Short Stories of 1937) by Edward J. O'Brien, who, praising it in his preface, remarked: “Nothing is irrelevant. The artist's energy is rigidly controlled for his purpose.” Since then it has been anthologized many times, and now it is probably safe to say that, with the possible exception of “The Killers,” none of Hemingway's stories has enjoyed greater popularity than this one. Hemingway's own opinion was that it was “about as good as any” of his shorter works.In the last ten or fifteen years, however, “The Snows” has come in for considerable disparagement, mainly from the so-called New Critics and their followers. In 1945 Ray B. West, Jr., wrote in The Sewanee Review: “While I consider this story one of Hemingway's best … it is spoiled for me by the conventionality of its leading symbol: the White-capped mountain as the ‘House of God’.” In 1950 Allen Tate and Caroline Gordon, referring to it in The House of Fiction as a “magnificent failure,” complained that it lacked “dramatic force” and objected that the symbolism was not properly integrated with the action. And in 1956 William Van O'Connor characterized it as a “rather puzzling story” and expressed dissatisfaction with the ending.

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Classic American Short Stories

The English Journal ◽

10.2307/813103 ◽

1971 ◽

Vol 60 (5) ◽

pp. 681

Author(s):

J. R. S.

Keyword(s):

Short Stories ◽

American Short Stories

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Travel and “Homing In” in Contemporary Ethnic American Short Stories

Text Matters ◽

10.2478/v10231-012-0067-2 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 239-249

Author(s):

Jadwiga Maszewska

Keyword(s):

Short Stories ◽

20Th Century ◽

Technological Development ◽

Ethnic Literature ◽

Cultural Boundaries ◽

The World ◽

American Ethnic Literature ◽

American Short Stories

In American ethnic literature of the last three decades of the 20th century, recurrent themes of mobility, travel, and “homing in” are emblematic of the search for identity. In this essay, which discusses three short stories, Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” Louise Erdrich’s “The World’s Greatest Fishermen,” and Daniel Chacon’s “The Biggest City in the World,” I attempt to demonstrate that as a consequence of technological development, with travel becoming increasingly accessible to ethnic Americans, their search for identity assumes wider range, transcending national and cultural boundaries.

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