Description
Book SynopsisA COMPANION TO THE BRITISH AND IRISH SHORT STORY A COMPANION TO THE BRITISH AND RISH SHORT STORY
A Companion to the British and Irish Short Story chronicles the development of this important literary form in Britain and Ireland from 1880 to the present. Part I covers the years up to 1945 and examines the short fiction that emerged around such themes as imperial adventures, responses to war, and detective and crime stories. Authors covered in this period include Robert Louis Stevenson, James Joyce, Liam O'Flaherty, and Elizabeth Bowen. Part II reflects the range of themes, and richer diversity of authorship, that developed during the postwar years, including feminist writings, gay and lesbian fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and short stories by Asian and Afro-Caribbean writers. Doris Lessing, Angela Carter, Hanif Kureishi, J.G. Ballard, and Ben Okri, are just some of the authors discussed in these chapters.
Incorporating a wide range of approaches, A
Trade Review
"Companion to the British and Irish Short Story is an instructive and engaging guide, covering a broad range of interest in fiction from schoolwork to academic research." (Reference Reviews, April 2009)
Table of Contents
Notes on Contributors ix
Preface xv
Part I: 1880–1945 1
Introduction 3
1 The British and Irish Short Story to 1945 5
Cheryl Alexander Malcolm and David Malcolm
Topics and Genres 17
2 The Story of Colonial Adventure 19
Mariadele Boccardi
3 Responses to War: 1914–1918 and 1939–1945 35
Richard Greaves
4 Irish Short Fiction: 1880–1945 51
Patrick Lonergan
5 The Detective and Crime Story: 1880–1945 65
Jopi Nyman
6 The British and Irish Ghost Story and Tale of the Supernatural: 1880–1945 81
Becky DiBiasio
7 Finding a Voice: Women Writing the Short Story (to 1945) 96
Sabine Coelsch-Foisner
8 Rudyard Kipling’s Art of the Short Story 114
David Malcolm
Reading Individual Authors and Texts 129
9 Robert Louis Stevenson: “The Bottle Imp,” “The Beach of Falesá,” and “Markheim” 131
Michael Meyer
10 Thomas Hardy: Wessex Tales 140
David Grylls
11 Joseph Conrad: “The Secret Sharer” and “An Outpost of Progress” 149
Christopher Thomas Cairney
12 The Short Stories of Hector Hugh Munro (“Saki”) 157
Sandie Byrne
13 Paralysis Re-considered: James Joyce’s Dubliners 165
Richard Greaves
14 H.G. Wells’s Short Stories: “The Country of the Blind” and “The Door in the Wall” 174
Sabine Coelsch-Foisner
15 D.H. Lawrence’s Short Stories: “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” and “The Rocking Horse Winner” 183
Kathryn Miles
16 Virginia Woolf: “Kew Gardens” and “The Legacy” 193
Stef Craps
17 Katherine Mansfi eld: “The Garden Party” and “Marriage à la Mode” 202
Jennifer E. Dunn
18 Frank O’Connor: “Guests of the Nation” and “My Oedipus Complex” 211
Greg Winston
19 The Short Stories of Liam O’Flaherty 221
Shawn O’Hare
20 W. Somerset Maugham’s Ashenden Stories 227
David Malcolm
21 Elizabeth Bowen: “The Demon Lover” and “Mysterious Kôr” 236
Sarah Dillon
Part II: 1945–the Present 245
Introduction 247
22 The British and Irish Short Story: 1945–Present 249
Cheryl Alexander Malcolm and David Malcolm
Topics and Genres 261
23 New Identities: The Irish Short Story since 1945 263
Greg Winston
24 Redefining Englishness: British Short Fiction from 1945 to the Present 279
James M. Lang
25 Scottish Short Stories (post 1945) 294
Gavin Miller
26 Hybrid Voices and Visions: The Short Stories of E.A. Markham, Ben Okri, Salman Rushdie, Hanif Kureishi, Patricia Duncker, and Jackie Kay 308
Michael Parker
27 The Anglo-Jewish Short Story since the Holocaust 330
Cheryl Alexander Malcolm
28 Feminist Voices: Women’s Short Fiction after 1945 342
Michael Meyer
29 British Gay and Lesbian Short Stories 356
Brett Josef Grubisic
30 Science Fiction and Fantasy after 1945: Beyond Pulp Fiction 372
Mitchell R. Lewis
31 Experimental Short Fiction in Britain since 1945 384
Günther Jarfe
Reading Individual Authors and Texts 399
32 The Short Stories of Julian Maclaren-Ross 401
David Malcolm
33 Alan Sillitoe: “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” 409
Michael Parker
34 The Short Stories of Elizabeth Taylor 416
Robert Ellis Hosmer, Jr
35 The Short Fiction of V.S. Pritchett 423
Andrzej Ga² siorek
36 Edna O’Brien: “A Rose in the Heart of New York” 431
Sinéad Mooney
37 Doris Lessing: African Stories 440
Don Adams
38 The Desire for Clarity: Seán O’Faoláin’s “Lovers of the Lake” 448
Paul Delaney
39 The Short Stories of Muriel Spark 456
Robert Ellis Hosmer, Jr
40 Jean Rhys: “Let Them Call It Jazz” 464
Cheryl Alexander Malcolm
41 George Mackay Brown: “Witch,” “Master Halcrow, Priest,” “A Time to Keep,” and “The Tarn and the Rosary” 472
Gavin Miller
42 William Trevor: Uncertain Grounds for Assured Art 480
John Kenny
43 John McGahern: Nightlines 488
Stanley van der Ziel
44 The Clinking of an Identity Disk: Bernard MacLaverty’s “Walking the Dog” 498
Jerzy Jarniewicz
45 Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber: A World Transformed by Imagination and Desire – Adventures in Anarcho-Surrealism 507
Madelena Gonzalez
46 J.G. Ballard: Psychopathology, Apocalypse, and the Media Landscape 516
Mitchell R. Lewis
47 The Short Stories of Benjamin Okri 524
Wolfgang Görtschacher
48 James Kelman: Greyhound for Breakfast 532
Peter Clandfield
49 Hanif Kureishi: Love in a Blue Time 541
Patrick Lonergan
Index 550
