Description
Book SynopsisThis book discusses the American short story composite, or short story cycle, a neglected form of writing consisting of autonomous stories interlocking into a whole. The critical work done on this genre has so far focused on the closural strategies of the composites, on how unity is accomplished in these texts. This study takes into consideration, to a greater degree than earlier criticism, the short story composite as an open work, emphasizing the tension between the independent stories and the unified work, between the discontinuity and fragmentation, on the one hand, and the totalizing strategies, on the other. The discussion of the genre is illustrated with references to numerous American short story composites.
Table of ContentsIntroduction; On the Definition of a Genre; Skratching the Generic Boundaries; Coherence and Closure in the Short Story Composite; Indeterminacy and Open Form in the Short Story Composite; E Pluribus Unum: The Americanness of the Short Story Composite; The Fringe Story - Or, How to Integrate the Resisting Text; Subverting Social and Narrative Convention; Eudora Welty's The Golden Apples; A Multiplicity of Myths: The Golden Apples.
