Department of EnglishChowgule College.

CA – IIUnderstanding FictionBy Shubham ‘Connor’ Verlekar AU160001Athira R. Chandan AU160026

A Short Introduction.•Short story, brief fictional prose narrative that is shorter than a novel and that usually deals with only a few characters.• Short Stories are usually concerned with a single effect conveyed in only one or a few significant episodes or scenes. • It has economy of setting, concise narrative, and the omission of a complex plot; character is disclosed in action and dramatic encounter but is seldom fully developed. • Prior to 19th Century, Short story wasn’t assigned a literary form. But however, it may seem like a new era genre, it’s as old as language itself.

Where do we find the roots?

The main areas to cover while digging out the roots of the short story is Stories of the Old Testament, Parables Of the New Testament, Fables, Panchatantra Stories, Boccaccio’s Decameron etc.

Babylons and Greece

• The earliest tales extant from Egypt were composed on papyrus at a comparable date. The ancient Egyptians seem to have written their narratives largely in prose, apparently reserving verse for their religious hymns and working songs. Eg. “The Shipwrecked Sailor” (c. 2000 bce)• The early Greeks also contributed greatly to the scope and

art of short fiction. • Aesop’s fables, the first known collection of which dates to

the 4th century bce. Brief mythological stories of the gods’ adventures in love and war were also popular in the pre-Attic age. Other: Apollodorus of Athens

Bible• Bible is a piece of doctrinal exposition. The format is the literary anthology—a

collection of varied literary genres written by multiple authors over the span of many centuries. • The book of Tobit which is a body of four works in Old testament.• Judith creates an unrelenting and suspenseful tension as it builds to its climax; and

has elements of short stories• The Writings are placed after the historical books in the Christian Bible. Some of

these are narratives covering the time of Israel’s exile in other nations and its eventual return to the homeland. • The Book of Esther, for example, tells the story of an unassuming Jewish girl who

becomes the queen of Persia and boldly saves the Jewish people from genocide.

The Panchatantra

• The Panchatantra (c. 100 bce–500 ce), has been one of the world’s most-popular books.• This anthology of amusing and moralistic animal tales, akin to those of “Aesop” in Greece, was translated into Middle Persian in the 6th century; into Arabic in the 8th century; and into Hebrew, Greek, and Latin soon thereafter.•  Sir Thomas North’s English translation appeared in 1570. of Kathasaritsagara (“Ocean of Rivers of Stories”) which was written by Somadeva in Sanskrit• Traces can be also seen in Jatkamalas in Pali Cannon language, Which are 574 short stories about former lives of The Buddha.

Boccaccio - The Decameron• There are 100 tales contained in the book

which is presented together. The book’s title The Decameron combines the two Greek words “deka” meaning ten and “hemera” meaning day. The title can be literally translated as “ten day,” which is also the time frame in which the stories are told by the 7 young women and 3 young men.• The Decameron tells a story of ten young

Florentines who have fled from the Black Plague to reside in Naples. The one hundred allegorical stories are shared through the narrative voices of these young people as they spend their nights regaling the company with tales from the erotic, sensual, and bawdy to the intellectual, philosophical or tragic. • They were short tales and consisted of

the elements of modern shorties.

What exactly is a modern short story then?• It’s been argued that “The Two Drovers” published in Chronices of the

Cannongate in 1827 by Walter Scott. • Problem is that the short story in Britain hardly existed in the mid-19th

century, such was the dominance of the novel; writers in France, Russia and America seemed to take more immediately to the form and it’s not until Robert Louis Stevenson in the 1880s that we can see the modern short story beginning to emerge and flourish in Britain once more, with the line extending on from Stevenson through Wells, Bennett, James and Kipling• Then Edgar Allen Poe finally did some careful analysis and gives the

definition as quite simply as a narrative that “can be read at one sitting.”

References• "The Origins and History of the American Short Story." Blogis Librorum. Expert Blogging About

Rare Books, blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/the-origins-and-history-of-the-american-short-story. Accessed 07 Feb. 2017.

• "A Short History of the Short Story | Prospect Magazine." Prospect Magazine, www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/william-boyd-short-history-of-the-short-story. Accessed 07 Feb. 2017.

• "A Short History of the Short Story, by David Davidar." DailyO - Opinion News & Analysis on Latest Breaking News India, www.dailyo.in/arts/short-history-of-the-short-story/story/1/893.html. Accessed 8 Feb. 2017.

• "Short Story | Literature | Britannica.com." Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/art/short-story. Accessed 08 Feb. 2017

• Hunter, Adrian. The Cambridge Introduction To The Short Story In English. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Print