Word: shortly
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...inherent prejudice in literary culture against the story as a lesser art form than the novel. Literary critics are obsessed with arguing about the so-called Great American Novel, but one never hears a debate about what could be termed the Great American Story. Many claim that the short story is dead, arguing that most contemporary writers write stories while in school as a mere stepping stone to eventually writing novels. Ironically, the short story is the most organic American literary form, largely developed by authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Aside from the historical roots...
...short story offers inherent advantages over the novel, stemming simply from the length, which imposes a certain focus and brevity on the author’s prose. The writer can simply offer an evocative scene, without the pressure of maintaining plot momentum and design over the course of a full-length novel. Perhaps the greatest strength of the form is that the story relies so heavily on what is left unsaid. Every gesture, every phrase, every detail in a great story takes on additional significance since it both signals the literal action and evokes everything that is left...
...working-class character suddenly attacks or humiliates his privileged counterpart. This kind of reversal, which occurs so often in O’Connor’s work, not only highlights the sinful arrogance of humanity but also overturns the social dynamics of Southern society. The condensed structure of the short story is the perfect form for O’Connor’s exercise in vicious catharsis. These brutal acts of violence become a radical form of the Catholic concept of grace. In O’Connor’s fiction, God’s grace manifests itself...
...particular strengths of O’Connor’s writing are perfectly fitted to the form of the short story, which becomes increasingly apparent by comparing her short fiction with her novel “Wise Blood.” The novel follows the many disturbing encounters of the sardonic prophet Hazel Motes, who preaches the idea of the “Church Without Christ” while wandering through the South. Accordingly, the novel seems to be a series of stories strung together, but the incidents and violence lose their sting when compiled on top of each other...
...trying to see how she had been cheated or what had cheated her, but she couldn’t see anything... she felt as if she were blocked at the entrance of something.” While the endings of many of O’Connor’s short stories leave her reader with a sense of unease and uncertainty towards the human condition, “Wise Blood” ends with a scene of banal mystery that is not worth exploring...