Philippine E-Journals

THE PROTEAN NATURE OF THE MODERN AMERICAN SHORT STORY: SOME HISTORICAL CAUSES FOR ITS VARIETY AND STRUCTURE

John Mcniff

Discipline: Literature

 

Abstract:

The modest proposal of this article is to review briefly the significant mutations that the short story in America has undergone during the last century and a half. It will also attempt, by honing in on four modem stories, to provide some indication of the broad spectrum of the modem American short story which contains traditional elements as well as experimental and impressionistic dimensions. The modem short story in America is, in a sense, both a reservoir and a fountainhead. Into it flow many undercurrents from the past; from it branch out new tributaries.