Chapter 10 -3

03 Literature

The Evolution of the Short Story

The earliest forms of the short story were oral folk tales, fairy tales, fables, and parables.

All shared common characteristics of having moral lessons and being brief.

While the modern short story evolved from these early narrative forms, the only characteristic it retained was brevity.

From the time short stories began to be written down, they continued to evolve until the 19th century, when they developed into the genre known today.

Around the 14th century, short narratives began to appear in popular written works.

The audience for these first collections of short stories was the upper class, who could afford books and were literate.

Most notable was Geoffery Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. It is a collection of short stories within a larger frame narrative about a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral in England.

Some of the pilgrims’ stories mention socioeconomic issues of the time, like class divisions between the nobility, the clergy, and the commoners.

The common man is frequently portrayed as a buffoon, as demonstrated by his ridiculous actions, and is not given a lengthy character description.

Impressions about the fictional characters are made as they tell their stories.

They are satirical representations about those who held such positions at the time, not individuals in their own right.

Similarly, in the latter part of the 17th century, Charles Perrault published a book of fairy tales, many of which were adapted from earlier versions to entertain the adult audiences of French literary salons. Perrault’s fairy tales were a combination of the rustic folklore and sophisticated mannerisms with which his readers were familiar.

Perrault’s fairy tales later became known as the Tales of Mother Goose.

It was not until the middle to late 1800s that the short story really emerged as a literary genre and gained popularity.

In these tales, the small number of characters allows the author to fully develop the personalities of each one.

The modern short story also starts at or near the main action that the story revolves around.

American authors Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne each produced a collection of short stories during this time.

Their works were well received by the massive literate middle class, who could sympathize with the motivations and emotions of the characters.

The settings were enormously detailed and often took place in the present time or in recent history.

The most influential factor of the rising popularity of short stories was the growing number of print magazines and journals.

There was an increasing demand for short narratives that told a complete story within a single issue, unlike novels that had to be printed in installments.

By publishing short stories in magazines and journals, they became accessible to the population at large for the first time.

The first literary theories about the short story were published during the latter part of the 19th century.

This ensured its place as a literary genre.

Many magazines today still publish short stories, and authors release collections of short stories to showcase their talents.

Perhaps the reason short stories have always been so popular is because they give people the chance to escape into another world, if only for a brief amount of time.