F.Y.B.A. (ENG)
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SHORT STORY
We know well that a
short story is “a work of fiction that is usually
written in prose, often in narrative format. A short story usually deals with a
few characters and often concentrates on the creation of the mood rather than
the plot”
A
short story is a piece of prose fiction that can be read in a single sitting,
usually between 20 minutes and an hour. There is no limit to the length of a
short narrative, but the average is 1,000 to 7,500 words, with some outliers
exceeding 10,000 or 15,000 words. Short tales are typically 10 to 25 pages
long, making them far shorter than novels, with only a handful nearing novella
length. Anything fewer than 1,000 words is referred to as a "short short
story" or "flash fiction," and anything less than 300 words is
appropriately referred to as "microfiction."
Historical
Background of Short Stories.
Short-form storytelling can be traced back to ancient legends, mythology, folklore, and fables found in communities all over the world; while some of these stories were written down, many were passed down orally.
One Thousand and One Nights (Middle Eastern folk tales by numerous authors, subsequently known as Arabian Nights) and Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer) were among the most well-known stories by the 14th century.
Short
story collections by individual authors did not become increasingly common in
print until the early nineteenth century. It started with the publication of
the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, then moved on to Edgar Allen Poe's Gothic
literature, and finally, pieces by Anton Chekhov, who is often regarded as 'the
father of the modern short story.'
The popularity of short stories developed in parallel with the rise of print publications and journals. Newspaper and magazine editors began publishing stories as entertainment, generating a demand for short, plot-driven narratives with broad appeal. By the early 1900s, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Yorker, and Harper's Magazine were paying considerable money for short tales that demonstrated better literary techniques. That golden age of publishing gave birth to the short story as we know it today.
A short story's setting is frequently reduced (one time and place), and one or two main characters may be introduced without entire backstories. Short stories typically focus on a single plot instead of multiple subplots, as you might see in novels. Some stories follow a traditional narrative arc, with exposition (description) at the beginning, rising action, a climax (peak moment of conflict or action), and a resolution at the end. Contemporary short fiction, on the other hand, is more likely to begin in the middle of the action, immersing readers straight into a dramatic scene.
While short stories of the past often revolved around a central theme or moral lesson, today it is common to find stories with ambiguous endings. This type of unresolved story invites open-ended readings and suggests a more complex understanding of reality and human behavior.
The short story genre is well suited to experimentation in prose writing style and form, but most short story authors still work to create a distinct mood using classic literary devices (point of view, imagery, foreshadowing, metaphor, diction/word choice, tone, and sentence structure).
PLOT.
There is a plot in every story. It is the series of events or incidents that make up a story. These events or situations are linked because one thing occurs as a result of another. A well-crafted storyline would include conflict between individuals, groups, the individual and forces like as nature, society, and so on. Surprise and intrigue would also be present. Above all, the plot must be continuous; each event must follow logically from the previous one.
The plot is the sequence of events in a story or play; it is how the author arranges events to develop his core idea. The plot is a prearranged logical sequence of events with a beginning, middle, and end. Short stories usually have a single plot and may be read in one sitting.
According to Aristotle, the order of a unified plot is a continuous sequence of beginning, middle, and end. A Plot is a sequence of events in a work in which the hero and heroine are meant to be together but get stopped by anything. Whatever is keeping them apart is removed from the balance during the course of the story, usually after a lot of raising misunderstanding and miscommunication, which usually ends in huge humour.
Misinterpretations worsen the problem. Characters get increasingly isolated. The truth will eventually be revealed. Misconceptions are corrected. The characters' views change. Love and understanding help in the recovery of a relationship. The mystery is finally discovered, the terrible man is punished, and everyone marries.
Plot has five fundamental components:
1. Introduction - The story's opening, when the characters and setting are introduced.
2. Rising Action - This is where the story's events become complex and the conflict becomes visible (events between the introduction and the climax).
3. Climax - This is the story's most interesting and crucial point. The reader is interested in what happens next; will the conflict be resolved?
4. Falling action - The events and complications begin to resolve themselves. The reader understands what happened next and whether or not the conflict was resolved (events between the climax and the denouement).
5. Denouement - This is the story's final outcome or untangling of events. It is beneficial to extract new information from the main character.
The time and location in which a story takes place is called the setting. Each story is set in a particular time and place. The author can either tell the story in a chronological sequence or may start at the end and keep going back and forth in time. Place is equally important and one can try to identify the details that form part of the setting of the story. The next point is to try and discover how the author has tried to use setting in order to heighten the effect of the story.
Setting refers not just to place, time, and event, but also to tradition, characters, social behaviours, and people's perspectives at the time the narrative is written. Setting, according to Aminuddin, is the backdrop events in the literature such as place, time, event, and fiscal and psychological function. A story's background or backdrop is something that defines a place or circumstance. The atmosphere that surrounds a story event, the world that interacts with what is happening, is referred to as the setting. Having set hours (day, month, and year), weather, or a historical period can also be used as background. For example, in horror stories, the setting is usually a dark ancient castle or a bleak graveyard. Thus setting contributes to the atmosphere or mood of the story.
For some stories, the setting is very important, while for others it is not. There are several aspects of a story's setting to consider when examining how setting contributes to a story (some, or all, may be present in a story):
1. Place - geographical location. Where is the action of the story taking place
2. Time - When is the story taking place? (historical period, time of day, year, etc)
3. Weather conditions - Is it rainy, sunny, stormy, etc?
4. Social conditions - What is the daily life of the character's like? Does the story contain local color (writing that focuses on the speech, dress, mannerisms, customs, etc. of a particular place)?
5. Mood or atmosphere - What feeling is created at the beginning of the story? Is it bright and cheerful or dark and frightening?
CHARACTERIZATION.
Characterization is the act of creating and describing characters in literature. Characterization includes both descriptions of a character's physical attributes as well as the character's personality. The way that characters act, think, and speak also adds to their characterization.
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There are two meanings for the word character:
1. Persons in a work of fiction. Short stories use few characters. One character is clearly central to the story with all major events having some importance to this character - he/she is the protagonist. The opposer of the main character is called the antagonist.
2. The Characteristics of a Person. In order for a story to seem real to the reader its characters must seem real. Characterization is the information the author gives the reader about the characters themselves.
In short fiction, the writer can employ two methods:
Direct characterization or indirect characterization.
Direct Characterization: The writer tells the reader about the character’s personality using the narrator of the story, another character, or the main character revealing aspects about himself/herself.
Indirect Characterization: The writer reveals to the reader what the character’s personality through the thoughts, feeling, and actions of the character.
The author may reveal a character in several ways:
his/her physical appearance
what he/she says, thinks, feels and dreams
what he/she does or does not do
what others say about him/her and how others react to him/her
Characters are convincing if they are: consistent, motivated, and life-like (resemble real people)
Type of Characters are...
Individual - round, many sided and complex personalities.
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Developing - Dynamic, many sided personalities that change, for better or worse, by the end of the story.
Static - Stereotype, have one or two characteristics that never change and are emphasized e.g. brilliant detective, drunk, scrooge, cruel stepmother, etc.
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