Significance of Short Story Cycle in Rachel Joyce’s A Snow Garden and Other Stories: An Analytical Study Using Complexity Theory

Rachel Joyce’s short story collection A Snow Garden and Other Stories (2015) is composed of seven stories which occur during a fortnight of the holiday, Christmas season. The collection uses narrative techniques which make it a unique set of stories. The stories have an urban setting and examine the intricacies of human relationships. The sense of interconnection highlighted by Joyce in the stories elevates it to a short story cycle. A short story cycle consists of individual stories which can stand on their own as complete narratives while also maintaining fictional links running through all the stories. The paper is an attempt to establish A Snow Garden and Other Stories as a short story cycle. It also argues that by narrating the interconnected nature of human lives Joyce’s work is exploring life as a complex system. As a scientific philosophy complexity theory explores the behavior of complex systems including human societies. Complex systems are self-organizing, dynamic, evolving networks that operate without any centralized control, similar to human societies. This paper will apply the principles of complex systems to reveal patterns of human behavior represented in Joyce’s work.

Short story poetics and theoretical and methodological bases of research into Kipling’s short story cycle

According to the recent hypothesis, Kipling’s short stories are considered to be the products of the transformation of journalistic discourse into a literary one. Kipling’s short stories deal with the topic of “clashes” of Western and Eastern cultures. Linking these two cultural phenomena is an essential factor in his biography as well as poetics of his short stories and their internal connection needs to be considered in the analysis of the stories. This analysis should not only identify the traces of a report as a journalistic genre (even if at the level of subtext), but also confirm that Kipling’s work as a reporter implies his role as a representative of the Western culture. The given topic can be perceived as a problem due to the paradigmatic factor represented by its multidimensional nature i.e. the fact that it belongs to three dimensions of reality – linguistic, fictional and cultural.

La claridad (2020), de Marcelo Luján: una lectura como ciclo de cuentos

Partiendo de un somero recorrido por las distintas aportaciones teórico-críticas del siglo XX en torno al denominado ciclo de cuentos, se defiende tal estatuto genérico para La claridad, libro de cuentos de Marcelo Luján publicado en 2020. Dado que esta obra reúne seis cuentos que son autónomos y a la vez están interrelacionados gracias a una serie de elementos narrativos, cumple los requisitos para ser considerada un ciclo. Se realizó una entrevista con Luján, reproducida en este trabajo, con el propósito de entender el proceso creativo detrás de esta obra y conocer qué concepción tiene este autor de su propia obra narrativa. Departing from a brief review of the different theoretical and critical contributions from the 20th century around the so called short story cycle, we could define La claridad, a book of stories by Marcelo Luján published in 2020, as such. This classification is justified by the fact that this work brings together six stories that are both autonomous and interrelated thanks to a series of narrative elements. An interview, reproduced in this work, was conducted with Luján in order to understand the creative process behind his work and to know what his own conception of it is.

THE SHORT STORY CYCLE IN CONTEMPORARY BRITISH LITERATURE (BASED ON THE SHORT STORIES BY J. MCGREGOR)

The article is devoted to the poetics of the short story cycle - a genre of short narrative fiction, where classical traditions and experimental narrative techniques are used to explicate topical issues of contemporary British literature. Beside the fact that the stories are relatively short, they are characterized by semantic compression, gaps in meaning, “internal” psychological plot, intensity, expressive imagery, lyricism, implications. The consistency of the short story cycle is created by thematic complementarity, coherence of style and composition. The short story cycle by J. McGregor ‘That Isn’t the Sort of Thing that Happens to Someone like You’ is devoted to everyday life of English Fenland inhabitants and can be attributed to the ‘narrative of community’ genre, traditional for British literature. McGregor’s short story cycle embodies almost all modern tendencies of the genre: a wide palette of themes within the framework of topical issues; vivid psychological portraits and images; variety of narrative types and forms; suggestiveness, implications, specific usage of pronouns, stylistic devices of contrast and repetition.

THE WOMAN'S IMAGE IN CREATIVITY OF V.T. SHALAMOV

В статье описано исследование образов женщин, созданных В.Т. Шаламовым в цикле «Колымские рассказы». Целью стало выявление авторской трактовки образа женщины. Использовались методы наблюдения, анализа, а также интерпретации авторского художественного текста. Научная новизна исследования заключается в том, что в нём впервые описано понимание писателем образа женщины, выявлены разные подходы автора к данному образу, представленные в сборнике «Колымские рассказы». Писатель изображает несколько различных образов женщин: во-первых, нежных, понимающих, практически идеальных существ, способных поддержать мужчину даже попутно сказанным словом; во-вторых, бездуховных жён начальства и наёмных работниц, для которых заключённые являются неполноценными людьми, не достойными жалости и в которых раскрываются худшие качества женщин - самолюбование, корыстолюбие. Показывает он и женщин, в образах которых причудливо переплетаются хорошие и негативные качества. В статье делается вывод о том, что для В.Т. Шаламова наиболее важным является гуманное начало в образе женщины, тот посыл искренности, жалости и нежности, который заложен в женщину самой её природой. Такие образы вступают в контраст как с историческим фоном, изображаемым писателем (сталинскими лагерями), так и с образом мужчины, для которого, по В.Т. Шаламову, сберечь то лучшее в характере, что заложено природой и предшествующим воспитанием, в бесчеловечных условиях сложнее, чем для женщины. Образ женщины становится в рассказах В.Т. Шаламова тем ориентиром, который символизирует вечную, не подверженную влиянию внешних обстоятельств доброту и гуманность. The article describes a study of the images of women created by V.T. Shalamov in the story cycle “Kolyma Tales”. The goal was to identify the author's interpretation of the image of a woman. The methods of observation, analysis, as well as interpretation of the author’s literary text were used. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that it first describes the writer’s understanding of the image of a woman, reveals the author’s different approaches to this image, presented in the collection “Kolyma Tales”. The writer depicts several different images of women: firstly, gentle, understanding, almost ideal creatures that are able to support a man even in passing words; secondly, the soulless wives of bosses and hired workers, for whom prisoners are inferior people, not worthy of pity, and in which the worst qualities of women are revealed - self-love, self-interest. He also shows women in whose images good and negative qualities are bizarrely intertwined. The article concludes that for V.T. Shalamov most important is the humane principle in the image of a woman, that message of sincerity, pity and tenderness, which is laid down in a woman by her very nature. Such images come in contrast with both the historical background portrayed by the writer (the Stalinist camps) and the image of a man for whom, according to V.T. Shalamov, to preserve the best in character that is inherent in nature and previous education, in inhuman conditions is more difficult than for a woman. The image of a woman becomes in the stories of V.T. Shalamov that landmark, which symbolizes the eternal, not subject to the influence of external circumstances, kindness and humanity.

Negotiating Identity and Belonging in the Western Indian Ocean: Fluid Enabling Spaces in M.G. Vassanji’s Uhuru Street

This article analyses the short story cycle Uhuru Street, which describes the life of the members of the minority Ismaili community, whom Vassanji fictionalises as Shamsis, in the context of crucial changes in the history of Tanzania. Diaspora, fragmentation and ethnic multiplicity in a really hierarchical tripartite society will be studied within the framework of cross-cultural networking in the Western Indian Ocean, where complex identity relations are established. Our discussion stems from a brief historical genealogy of the Indian community in Tanzania, it analyses the complex identity relations and affiliations among Tanzanian citizens of Indian descent, and moves on to the analysis of Vassanji’s short stories in order to explore those fluid and enabling spaces where identity and belonging are to be negotiated.

Frontier Imagery in Gentrification Narratives: Andrew Wingfield’s Short Story Cycle Right of Way (2010)

Metaforyka pogranicza w cyklu opowiadań Andrew Wingfielda pt. Right of Way (2010) poświęconych procesom gentryfikacji Niniejszy artykuł stanowi analizę cyklu opowiadań pt. Right of Way (2010) amerykańskiego pisarza Andrew Wingfielda przez pryzmat mitu pogranicza. Odwołując się do pojęcia pogranicza, sformułowanego przez historyka Fredericka Jacksona Turnera pod koniec XIX w. oraz do teorii miejskiej ekologii wypracowanej przez socjologów tzw. szkoły chicagowskiej, pokazuję w jaki sposób Wingfield wykorzystuje metaforę pogranicza i proces inwazji-sukcesji w celu krytycznego ujęcia gentryfikacji w podmiejskiej Ameryce. Wingfield sięga po rozpoznawalny dla Amerykanów mit założycielski, ale zabieg ten służy mu jako punkt wyjścia do wielowymiarowego ujęcia zmian zachodzących w przestrzeni miejskiej. Interesują go przede wszystkim interakcje międzyludzkie w obrębie lokalnej wspólnoty oraz tworzenie się więzi emocjonalnej z miejscem.

Dans le ventre de l’histoire

Le cycle des sept voyages de Sindbad le marin comprend un grand nombre d’actes diégétiques relevant du manger. Plus profondément, nous soutenons ici que la progression même de chaque péripétie s’appuie sur une forme de repas. À bien y regarder, les intrigues, plus ou moins complexes, comportent toutes une ou plusieurs scènes dans lesquelles se nourrir détermine la suite des événements. Nous croyons que les narrèmes mobilisés servent un projet qui ressortit à l’adab : montrer jusqu’à quelles extrémités l’accumulation pousse les hommes. Le motif alimentaire au cœur de ce dispositif relève alors de la métaphore, celle du glouton. The story cycle of Sindbad the Sailor’s seven travelogues contains many diegetic acts related to eating. I will argue that on each journey, the narrative relies on the form of a meal. Furthermore, on closer inspection, the plots, whether complex or not, all contain one or more scenes in which feeding determines the sequence of events. I contend that the underlying narremes serve a purpose pertaining to the axiological adab system: to show to what extremes accumulation can drive people. From this perspective, the food motif at the heart of this literary device falls under the metaphor of a glutton.

The Contest on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:19–40) as a Reflection of a Religious-Cultural Threat

The article suggests that the story of the contest on Mount Carmel (1 Kgs 18:19–40) is a complete literary unit that was written by a single author in the early Persian period and inserted into the deuteronomistic story-cycle of Elijah. The story is entirely legendary and reflects the polemic of a devotee of YHWH against the contemporaneous spread of the Phoenician cult and culture. The attachment of the story to Mount Carmel may reflect the occasion of the establishment of a Tyrian/Sidonian temple on one of the mountain’s peaks, but this hypothesis cannot be verified. The story conveys a clear religious message of the absolute power of YHWH and the worthlessness of all other gods – in particular the Phoenician God Ba‘al – and of the fallacy of the belief in his divine power.

Stylization of Ornamental Narrative in the Prose of Denis Osokin. The Cycle of Stories “Angels and Revolution. Vyatka 1923”

The article analyzes the poetics of the short story cycle “Angels and Revolution. Viatka 1923” by modern Russian writer Denis Osokin. The author, developing the tradition of Russian ornamental prose of the 20 th century, creates a modern interpretation of revolutionary events. The fictional locus of Viatka 1923 becomes a space of the artistic experiment for language renewal. Using the technique of stylization of the ornamental narrative, Denis Osokin forms the image of an impersonal narrator consisting of many narrative-rhetorical figures that weaken the fabulality of the narrative. The artistic integrity of the cycle is preserved by a system of style, intertextual, and motivational equivalences that create a special form of lyrical plot characteristic for ornamental prose.