The Classic Short Story, 1870-1925 : Theory of a Genre / Florence Goyet.

Includes bibliographical references (197-206) and index.

Introduction -- Part I. Structure -- Paroxystic characterisation -- Antithetic structure -- Ending with a twist -- The tools of brevity -- Conclusion to Part I -- Part II. Media -- Exoticism in the classic short story -- Short stories and the travelogue -- Part III. Reader, character and author -- A foreign world -- Dialogue and character discreditation -- The narrator, the reflector and the reader -- Distance and emotion -- Conclusion to Part III : Are Dostoevsky's short stories polyphonic? -- Epilogue : Beyond the classic short story.

Table of Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- PART I: STRUCTURE -- 1. Paroxystic Characterisation -- Extremes in the fantastic short story -- 2. Antithetic Structure -- Secondary tensions -- Editing antithetic tension: Maupassant and James -- 3. Ending with a Twist -- The “twist-in-the-tail� and antithetic tension -- The “Twist-in-the-tail� and retroreading -- “Open� texts and tension -- 4. The Tools of Brevity -- Preconstructed material -- Character types -- Recurring characters and empty characters -- Tight focus

Permanence of types5. Conclusion to Part I -- Hypotyposis and schematisation -- Short stories, sensational news items and serials -- The short story: privileged object of narratology -- PART II: MEDIA -- 6. Exoticism in the Classic Short Story -- The role of the press -- Exotic subjects -- The constraints of the newspapers -- Exceptions to the rule -- 7. Short Stories and the Travelogue -- Praise of nature, criticism of culture -- From vision to judgement: guidelines for description -- PART III: READER, CHARACTER AND AUTHOR -- 8. A Foreign World

An explicit distanceThe use of types: subversion or immersion? -- “Deceptive representations� of reality -- The great man -- “We are simply the case�: James and abstract entities -- Reading at face value: the double distance -- 9. Dialogue and Character Discreditation -- Direct and indirect speech: Verga�s novel versus short stories -- Dialect and distancing -- Foreign terms -- 10. The Narrator, the Reflector and the Reader -- Unreliable narrators and reflectors -- Reliable narrators and reflectors -- 11. Distance and Emotion

The short story with a dilemmaReaders� emotional response to the classic short story -- 12. Conclusion to Part III: Are Dostoevsky�s Short Stories Polyphonic? -- Epilogue: Beyond the Classic Short Story -- Lengthy stories: the long Yvette after the brief Yveline -- Fantastic tales: the deconstruction of the self -- Authors at a crossroads -- Bibliography -- Index -- read -- Naturalism -- Parox -- Verga -- James1 -- Chek -- fan2 -- Mau -- Stev -- ohen -- Verg1 -- Tieck -- Akutagawa1 -- James2 -- Akutagawa2 -- Chek1 -- Mau1 -- James

James3end -- Chek2 -- Mau2 -- retro -- Chek3 -- fan3 -- Mau3 -- read1 -- precon -- read2 -- type -- type1 -- read3 -- Chek5 -- prov -- Mau4 -- cyc -- emo -- James5 -- James4 -- type2 -- Mau5 -- James6 -- hyp -- fait -- novel -- news -- Mau6 -- news1 -- Gil -- Fanful -- Ver2 -- Ver3 -- Chek6 -- sat -- int -- read4 -- Joyce -- Prou -- Mau7 -- read5 -- News2

"The ability to construct a nuanced narrative or complex character in the constrained form of the short story has sometimes been seen as the ultimate test of an author's creativity. Yet during the time when the short story was at its most popular--the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries--even the greatest writers followed strict generic conventions that were far from subtle. This expanded and updated translation of Florence Goyet's influential La Nouvelle, 1870-1925: Description d'un genre à son apogée (Paris, 1993) is the only study to focus exclusively on this classic period across different continents. Ranging through French, English, Italian, Russian and Japanese writing--particularly the stories of Guy de Maupassant, Henry James, Giovanni Verga, Anton Chekhov and Akutagawa Ryunosuke--Goyet shows that these authors were able to create brilliant and successful short stories using the very simple 'tools of brevity' of that period. In this challenging and far-reaching study, Goyet looks at classic short stories in the context in which they were read at the time: cheap newspapers and higher-end periodicals. She demonstrates that, despite the apparent intention of these stories to question bourgeois ideals, they mostly affirmed the prejudices of their readers. In doing so, her book forces us to re-think our preconceptions about this 'forgotten' genre."--Publisher's website.

Viewed on 2020-04-03.

Translated from the French.

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