Bowen, The Bell, and the Late-Modernist Short Story

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-84
Author(s):  
Elke D'hoker
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Short Fiction ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
Woman Writer ◽  
Irish Woman ◽  
Fiction Writer

This essay looks at Elizabeth Bowen's presence in The Bell during the war years. She contributed an essay, a short story, two pieces of memoir, two obituaries, and a few other, smaller pieces to the magazine, but also featured in an interview, several reviews, and O'Faoláin's editorials and critical essays. Yet, as a Protestant, Anglo-Irish woman writer living in England, Bowen was in many ways an odd presence in The Bell, which squarely focused on Irish life and Irish writing. While O'Faoláin's mission to present an inclusive view of Ireland may explain his publication of Bowen's autobiographical essays, her prominence as a fiction writer can better be accounted for through her achievements in the modern short story, the genre O'Faoláin sought to promote as a central Irish literary form in The Bell. Indeed, although Bowen's short stories have been classified as ‘modernist’ and O'Faoláin's as ‘realist’, their aesthetics of the short story are remarkably similar. Still, The Bell’s championing of Bowen's short fiction as a model to follow was undermined by its framing of Bowen as an ‘aristocratic’ writer whose literary snapshots of Irish life had a peculiarly dated and blinkered quality.

‘Forlorn on the Fringe of Life’: Exploring Working-Class Childhood in Katherine Mansfield’s Short Stories

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Argha Kumar Banerjee
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Short Fiction ◽  
Verbal Abuse ◽  
The Other ◽  
Parental Rejection ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
The One

Abstract In Katherine Mansfield’s short story ‘Life of Ma Parker’, the old, widowed charwoman is plagued by ‘unbearable’ thoughts of her deceased grandson Lennie: ‘Why did he have to suffer so?’ Lennie’s unfortunate death in the story is not a solitary instance of tragic portrayal of working-class childhood in Mansfield’s short fiction. In several of her tales she empathetically explores the marginalized existence of such children, occasionally juxtaposing their deplorable existence with their elite counterparts’. From social exclusion, child labour, parental rejection, infant and child mortality on the one hand to physical and verbal abuse, bullying in the school and appalling living conditions on the other; Mansfield's exploration of the working-class childhood in her short fiction is not only psychologically complex but sociologically significant. Focusing on the relevant short stories in her oeuvre, this brief analysis intends to closely examine such depictions of marginalized childhood experiences, particularly in light of the oppressive societal conditions that validate their repressive alienation and sufferings. Tracing various biographical circumstances that may have fostered Mansfield’s deep empathy with the children’s’ predicament, this analysis also draws attention to her subtle oblique narrative strategies that effectively represent the plight of working-class children in a convincing and an ingeniously nuanced manner.

‘The Magazine Short Story and the Real Short Story’: Consuming Fiction in the Feminist Weekly Time and Tide

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Clay
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Short Fiction ◽  
Affect Theory ◽  
Basic Unit ◽  
Women Readers ◽  
Literary Marketplace ◽  
Periodical Studies ◽  
The Subject

This chapter examines the short fiction content of the feminist weekly Time and Tide alongside readers’ letters printed in the periodical’s correspondence columns. A basic unit of magazine production the short story is also ‘definitional to modernism’ (Armstrong 2005: 52), and during the interwar period its status as commodity or art became the subject of increasing scrutiny and debate. Drawing on examples from amateur writers and well-known figures such as E. M. Delafield, the chapter explores how Time and Tide negotiated readers’ expectations for short fiction amongst its core target audience of women readers. Building on Fionnuala Dillane’s application of affect theory to periodical studies (2016), the chapter uses her concept of ‘discursive disruption’ to consider moments of conflict between Time and Tide and its readers over the short stories it published as moments of opportunity for the periodical to expand its scope, readership and brow, and renegotiate its position in the literary marketplace.

Horizon Magazine and the Wartime Short Story, 1940–1945

2020 ◽  
pp. 229-249
Author(s):  
Ann-Marie Einhaus
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Short Fiction ◽  
Editorial Policy ◽  
Filler Material ◽  
Critical Factors ◽  
Aesthetic Judgement

Cyril Connolly’s wartime periodical venture Horizon is commonly regarded as one of the most significant British literary publications in this period alongside John Lehmann’s New Writing series. Connolly’s specialism was literary criticism and cultural commentary, but the magazine also prided itself in offering readers exciting new (and some older) works of poetry and fiction. Given the stature of the magazine, this chapter investigates whether Horizon had a noticeable impact on the wartime short story in Britain, and if so, what this impact might have been. It outlines an editorial policy that, with few exceptions, regarded short fiction as filler material and chose short stories based on a combination of practical and critical factors, determined by availability and convenience as much as by aesthetic judgement.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Elke D’hoker ◽  
Chris Mourant
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Short Fiction ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
Periodical Studies ◽  
The Status ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Material Turn ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Impact

This chapter provides an overview of the methodological and historical frames that inform the book’s analysis of the manifold interactions between the short story and British magazine culture, from 1880 to 1950. It discusses the material turn in short fiction studies which has led to a better understanding of the impact of publication contexts on the production, reception and development of the short story. This holds true in particular for the role magazines played in the emergence of the modern short story as a specific and successful literary form in the final decades of the nineteenth century. The chapter also presents an overview of recent developments in periodical studies, providing useful methodological tools for analysing the status, presentation and function of a particular genre within the heterogeneous, dialogic and time-bound format of the periodical.

scholarly journals Social Themes in Saudi Women Short Stories: Making the voice of Women Heard

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdulrahman Mokbel Mahyoub Hezam
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
Transitional Period ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Saudi Women ◽  
Arabic Speakers ◽  
The Social

Few studies in English have been carried out to explore the realm of Saudi short stories in general and women writers' works in particular. The aim of this paper is to examine how Saudi women short story writers used a western literary form to depict the realities of their country. It also delineates the magnificent representation of social themes through storytelling and provides non-Arabic speakers with an insight into the writings of Saudi female writers. It tries to present a vivid picture of how these stories reflect the social reality in Saudi Arabia in the last few decades of the 20th century and the challenges facing women in this transitional period. Moreover, the study tries to examine how women writers participated in the contentious debates regarding women that dominated the Saudi society especially on questions like marriage, divorce and women education. The present study is basically a text-based research that involves an analysis of major primary sources chosen. Selected short stories written by Saudi women writers are examined from a thematic perspective to reveal the ways in which women writers incited social change by defining notions of gender and social space and how they give voice to the Saudi women.

The Short Story in America

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie Champion
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Short Fiction ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
Early 21St Century ◽  
Technological Advances

The short story is the only genre that can be considered uniquely American. The genre began as sketches, or tales, as in the classic tale “Rip Van Winkle.” The genre remained undefined until Edgar Allan Poe’s well-known 1842 review of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Twice-Told Tales. Since Poe’s review, in which he distinguished short fiction from other genres, the American short story has evolved both in form and in content. Like other genres, the short story has evolved through various movements and traditions such as realism, modernism, and postmodernism; however, it has remained unique because of publishing opportunities that differ from longer works such as the novel. The short story genre shares elements of fiction with the novel, traditionally consisting of characteristics such as plot, character, setting, point of view, theme, and writing style. Although the short story shares elements of literature and writing devices with other literary genres, avenues for publication differ greatly. Unlike a novel, a short story is not published as a single entity. It is usually presented with works by other authors in a journal or magazine or in a collection of previously published stories by one author. The rise in popular magazines during the 1920s gave rise to the short story, as the magazines provided a publication outlet. During the second half of the 20th century the short story became less commercial and more literary, paving the way for artistic stories such as one appropriately called “The New Yorker Story.” However, as it became less commercial, the short story fell from popularity and became somewhat obscure in the manner in which poetry remains. Because short stories do not sell, publishers are hesitant to produce them. But during the 1970s, American universities began teaching creative writing classes, and the short story provided a suitable genre for teaching the art of fiction writing. Hence, the American short story experienced a renaissance, and a wave of literary journals emerged. About this time, minimalism was one of the styles most often used in the short story. Raymond Carver built on what Ernest Hemingway had started in America, and the short story took on a new form. During the latter half of the 20th century and early 21st century, women and ethnic writers were given more opportunities to publish short fiction, and the short story reflected progress in civil rights issues. Currently, the rise in technological advances has brought even more opportunities for publication, and more and more American authors are publishing short stories online, now a respected publication venue.

Humbling the human: Posthuman explorations in contemporary short fiction

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elke D’hoker
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Short Fiction ◽  
Human Subject ◽  
Species Extinction ◽  
Donna Haraway ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
Louise Bennett ◽  
Being And Becoming

In a context of manmade global warming, ecological destruction and species extinction, posthumanist scholars have advocated moving beyond the anthropocentrism that determines western thinking in favour of an embedded and embodied interspecies relationality. If these remain fairly abstract notions in the work of critics such as Donna Haraway and Rosi Braidotti, contemporary short fiction provides many interesting examples of these alternative forms of being and becoming. The short story seems especially suited to exploring this decentring of the human subject, given its own status as a liminal, ‘minor’ or ‘humble’ genre and its long tradition of exploring human–animal relations in animal stories. This article demonstrates how contemporary short stories by Lauren Groff, Claire-Louise Bennett, Sarah Hall, Sara Baume and Louise Ehrdrich stage a profoundly biocentric perspective by moving beyond animal stories’ traditional modes of the fabular and the figural towards a realistic depiction of our creaturely existence in experiences that may be at once empowering and terrifying.

Regionalist short fiction as humble fiction

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alda Correia
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Short Fiction ◽  
Spatial Context ◽  
Regional Literature ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
The World ◽  
Cultural Connections

The representation of the world cannot be separated from its spatial context. Making the effort to understand how space and landscape influence short stories and their structure, and are represented in them, can help us to make sense of the role of this formerly underestimated subgenre, its social and cultural connections and dissonances, its relation to storytelling and popular narratives, and its alleged low importance. How does the short story genre relate to regional and landscape literature? Can we see it as humble fiction and, in this case, how does the humbleness of this subgenre play a part in the growth of the modernist short story? The oral, mythic and fantastic sources of the short story, together with the travel memoir tradition that brought the love for landscape description and the interest in the narration of brief and easily publishable episodes of local life, helped to consolidate a connection between the short story form and regional literature. ‘Humbleness’ is used here in association with the absence of complexity, plainness, simplicity of approach to a complex reality, straightforwardness. From this perspective, aesthetic value was usually absent from regionalist fiction as its only aim was to render the local truth faithfully. However, this ‘aesthetic humbleness’, which should not be used as a generalization, has been increasingly questioned in regard to modernism, postmodernism and postcolonialism and also when we consider specific works.

From Newspaperman to Short Story Writer

Irvin S. Cobb ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Short Stories ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Short Fiction ◽  
Small Town ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Big City ◽  
Story Writer ◽  
Attention To Detail

Ellis begins by describing Cobb’s successful ventures as a humorist and how his appearance played into his style. His attention to detail and offbeat subjects became a staple for Evening World readers. Cobb used his small-town Kentucky perspective to make observations about the big city in his first long-running humor series, “New York thro’ Funny Glasses.” The transplanted Kentuckian exemplified the racial attitudes of many white Americans in the early twentieth century. Eventually, Cobb’s writing found a place in the Sunday World Magazine. Cobb also tried his hand at writing short fiction. Over the next three decades, Cobb turned out an immense amount of copy for newspapers and magazines, wrote short stories and plays, dabbled in movies, and wrote novels. He never seemed to be short of ideas.

Benford’s Short Fiction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Slusser
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Short Fiction ◽  
Essential Form

This chapter focuses on Gregory Benford's short fiction. The short story is widely considered the essential form for science fiction (SF). Indeed, many of the most esteemed SF novels began as an idea-packed short story, which the author subsequently elaborates (often with less success) into a larger narrative. Since his first published story “Stand In” appeared in 1965 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Benford has published a large number of short stories in magazines and in anthologies. He collected many of his best stories in two landmark volumes, In Alien Flesh (1986) and Matter's End, followed by three more recent anthologies: Worlds Vast and Various (1999), Immersion and Other Short Novels (2002), and Anomalies: Collected Stories (2012). This chapter examines two of Benford's short stories, “Exposures” (1981) and “Mozart on Morphine” (1989).

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document