About Short Stories
If you can read the whole story in one sitting, it probably belongs to the short story genre. The genre has been around since ancient Greece and continues to engage readers of every age and disposition. Short stories are an English teacher's pick to introduce students to the elements of fiction.
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Size
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A short story can be really short. The shortest are known as "one-minute fiction." They can also be quite a bit longer with as many words as a short novella, i.e. 20,000 words. Very short stories have historically been called fables, like Aesop's, and parables, like Jesus'. When stories like these are written today, they are included in the short-story genre. Perhaps the earliest author of short stories in English was Chaucer, in the 13th century. His "Canterbury Tales" is made up of a series of short stories held together loosely by the fact that each one is told by a different participant on the pilgrimage. The earliest exposure that most people have to the genre comes from hearing the fairy tales told as bed-time stories when they were children.
Features
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All of the features that pertain to fiction are present in each short story. There are fewer characters than in a longer novel, and each one may be described as in a gesture drawing that accentuates the main feature that the reader must notice. The plot of a short story is clearly defined, but it may unfold in a variety of ways through the use of foreshadowing and flashback, or it may be shown more sequentially. Theme, setting, point of view, conflict, climax and denouement can all be found in a short story. This allows literature teachers to focus on one feature at a time via short stories to introduce students to these important literary concepts.
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Evolution
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After Aesop, Chaucer, and the fairy tales, the genre of the short story evolved predominantly when literary magazines became popular during the 19th century. Magazines needed to fill pages, and authors used the opportunity to showcase their talents. Even today, magazines publish the majority of short stories, although there are regular contests and anthologies that provide other venues for short-story writers.
Type
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Two famous American writers of short stories are O Henry and Edgar Allan Poe. O'Henry wrote "The Gift of the Magi," a Christmas story that can be used to teach about irony. The characters are a husband and wife who take desperate measures to buy the other a present. Unfortunately, the wife sold her hair to buy her husband a watch fob, and the husband sold his watch to buy his wife a comb. O Henry also wrote a delightful tale, "The Ransom of Red Chief," which is about a kidnapping that back-fired. O Henry may be the most well known of the American short-story writers. Poe's tales, like his poetry, are dark and frightening. They include "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Gold Bug."
Benefits
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After studying classic short stories, teachers can encourage their students to write their own. Every year an "Anthology of Short Stories by Young Americans" solicits submissions of student short stories. Fifty five percent of the submissions get published because of their "originality, character development, plot development, and appeal to the audience." Each story must be 1,500 words or less.
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