The Tales We Tell
Perspectives on the Short Story
Published on 30. June 1998
Book
Hardback
248 pages
978-0-313-30396-8 (ISBN)
Description
The 1990s have seen a renaissance in short fiction studies. Today's short story writers are testing the boundaries of short fiction through minimalist works; extended short story cycles; narrative nonfiction forms, such as histories, memoirs, and essays; and even stories created interactively with readers on the computer. Short story critics, in turn, are viewing the short story from the perspective of genre, history, cultural studies, and even cognitive science. This volume brings together the opinions, theories, and research of many of today's best-known short story writers, theorists, and critics. Contributors include some of the most widely read contemporary authors, such as Joyce Carol Oates, John Barth, Gay Talese, W. P. Kinsella, Robert Coover, Barry Hannah, and Leslie Marmon Silko.
The authors and scholars who have contributed to the volume provide an entertaining and informative exploration of modern short fiction. The volume traces the origins of the short story back to Chaucer, the joke, and the instinct for play, and follows the development of the form through today's hyper-stories created interactively in cyberspace. Along the way, it presents essays on miminalism in short fiction, on the transformation of short stories into films, and even on AIDS and the short story. The broad scope of the volume includes a wide variety of critical approaches brought to bear on literature from around the world, including short stories from Africa, Australia, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.
The authors and scholars who have contributed to the volume provide an entertaining and informative exploration of modern short fiction. The volume traces the origins of the short story back to Chaucer, the joke, and the instinct for play, and follows the development of the form through today's hyper-stories created interactively in cyberspace. Along the way, it presents essays on miminalism in short fiction, on the transformation of short stories into films, and even on AIDS and the short story. The broad scope of the volume includes a wide variety of critical approaches brought to bear on literature from around the world, including short stories from Africa, Australia, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Interest Age: From 7 to 17 years
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
555 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-313-30396-8 (9780313303968)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
BARBARA LOUNSBERRY is Professor of English and Distinguished Scholar at the University of Northern Iowa. Her books include The Art of Fact: Contemporary Artists of Nonfiction (Greenwood, 1990), The Writer in You (1992), and Writing Creative Nonfiction: The Literature of Reality (1996), edited with Gay Talese.
SUSAN LOHAFER is Professor of English at the University of Iowa. Her books include Coming to Terms with the Short Story (1983) and the coedited volume Short Story Theory at a Crossroads (1989). She has published short stories of her own and was the first elected president of the Society for the Study of the Short Story.
MARY ROHRBERGER is Professor of English in Residence at the University of New Orleans. She is the author or editor of a dozen books in the area of prose fiction, the majority on the short story. She is the founder and editor of the journal Short Story and the founder and Executive Director of the biannual International Conference on the Short Story in English.
STEPHEN PETT is Associate Professor of English at Iowa State University. He is the author of Sirens (1990), a novel, and Pulpit of Bones (1984), a book of poems. His short stories have been published in a number of journals, cited in Best American Short Stories, and have been honored with numerous awards. He is the editor of Flyway, a literary review.
R.C. FEDDERSEN is a doctoral candidate in literature at Oklahoma State University. He has long had special interest in the short story and has worked as Assistant Editor of Short Story as well as Assistant Coordinator for both the second and third International Conferences on the Short Story in English. His publications include an interview with W. P. Kinsella.
SUSAN LOHAFER is Professor of English at the University of Iowa. Her books include Coming to Terms with the Short Story (1983) and the coedited volume Short Story Theory at a Crossroads (1989). She has published short stories of her own and was the first elected president of the Society for the Study of the Short Story.
MARY ROHRBERGER is Professor of English in Residence at the University of New Orleans. She is the author or editor of a dozen books in the area of prose fiction, the majority on the short story. She is the founder and editor of the journal Short Story and the founder and Executive Director of the biannual International Conference on the Short Story in English.
STEPHEN PETT is Associate Professor of English at Iowa State University. He is the author of Sirens (1990), a novel, and Pulpit of Bones (1984), a book of poems. His short stories have been published in a number of journals, cited in Best American Short Stories, and have been honored with numerous awards. He is the editor of Flyway, a literary review.
R.C. FEDDERSEN is a doctoral candidate in literature at Oklahoma State University. He has long had special interest in the short story and has worked as Assistant Editor of Short Story as well as Assistant Coordinator for both the second and third International Conferences on the Short Story in English. His publications include an interview with W. P. Kinsella.
Content
Introduction by Susan Lohafer A Novel Perspective: "It's a Short Story" by John Barth Form and the Short Story How Minimal Is Minimalism? by Ewing Campbell Social Critique and Story Technique in the Fiction of Raymond Carver by Hilary Siebert Picturing Ann Beattie by Susan Jaret McKinstry The One and the Many: Canadian Short Story Cycles by Gerald Lynch History and Place The Origins and Art of the Short Story by Joyce Carol Oates They All Laughed When I Sat Down to Write: Chaucer, Jokes, and the Short Story by Barry Sanders Southern Women Reconstruct the South: Limit as Aesthetic in the Short Story by Barbra C. Ewell The Place of (and Place in) the Anglophone African Short Story by Roger Berger Generic Variations on a Colonial topos by Ian Reid Roles and Genres Breaking Down the Boundaries: "A Conversation with Leslie Marmon Silko" Poe's Legacy: The Story Writer as Editor and Critic by Ann Charters "Stories with Real Names": Narrative Journalism and History by Gay Talese Story in the Narrative Essay by Mary Swander Hemingway's "Indian Camp": Story into Film by H. R. Stoneback An Unfilmable Conclusion: Joyce Carol Oates at the Movies by Brenda O. Daly Cognition and the Short Story Storying in Hyperspace: "Linkages" by Robert Coover HyperStory: Teaching Short Fiction with Computers by Charles May Interdisciplinary Thoughts on Cognitive Science by Susan Lohafer A Map of Psychological Approaches to Story Memory by Steven R. Yussen Short Story Structure and Affect: Evidence from Cognitive Psychology by William F. Brewer "Story Liking" and Moral Resolution by Paul E. Jose Deixis in Short Fiction: The Contribution of Deictic Shift Theory to Reader Experience of Literary Fiction by Erwin M. Segal The Future of the Short Story Telling It Again: "Ruminating with W. P. Kinsella" The Way We Write Now: The Reality of AIDS in Contemporary Short Fiction by Sharon Oard Warner The Future of the Short Story: A Tentative Approach by Claire Larriere Where Do We Go From Here?: The Future of the Short Story by Mary Rohrberger Speaking of Writing: "Spies With Music" by Barry Hannah Bibliography Contributors Index