PDF Compiled and designed by - Narajole Raj College

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Compiled and designed by:

Mr. Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College

ENGLISH (CC); SEM- III : PAPER- C6T ( Short-story )

Short-story: A brief overview: —

Literature is a store house of different genre. From ancient to the present day it has been enriched with various types of literature in any country. Probably all the literature began their journey with poetry. Prose came after a long time. Prose has also many sub-genres like essay, novel etc. Short-story, comparatively, is a new genre than that of other prose. It is a prose fiction of short length. The following can be taken for granted to discuss about the short story.

To define a short-story an eminent critic opined that a short-story must contain one and only informing idea and this that idea must be worked out to the singleness of aim and directness of method.

To clarify the above opinion, we may say that there no grandeur of incidents like that of a novel. The story line is linear one. That is to say that there no diversion in the story line. The story is told in a direct manner. There is a single aim of a short story.

Our own Tagore is the short-story maestro. His definition is one of the best definitions of short- story. He defined short-story as:

Chhoto pran, chhoto bytha Chhoto chhoto dukkho kotha Nitantay sahaj saral

Sohashra bismriti rashi Pratyha jetechhe bhasi Tarei du chariti ashrujol.

Nahi barnonar chhota Ghotanar ghanaghata Nahi tattwa nani updesh

Antore atripti robe Sango kori mone hobe Sesh hoye hoilo na sesh.

If we can put light in the above definition of short-story by R. N. Tagore, we can perceive each and every characteristic of a certain short-story. A short-story deals with the incidents of our day to day life. In its form, a short-story is simple. That is to say that there no figurative language in most of the short-story. A short-story does not carry long description of any incident. It starts in media race (in the middle) . A short-story starts abruptly. There is no such didactic purpose of a short-story. It ends with an unsatisfactory tone in the mind of the readers.

That means it is open ended in nature. It also creates a long-lasting impression in the inner psyche of the readers.

The following characteristics can be traced from a short-story: —

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Compiled and designed by:

Mr. Milan Mondal, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Narajole Raj College

ENGLISH (CC); SEM- III : PAPER- C6T ( Short-story )

i. It is a fictional narrative.

ii. There is an abrupt beginning and an unsatisfactory ending in a short-story.

iii. It is written in a single setting unlike novel.

iv. There may be plot but not well knitted.

v. A short-story evokes single effect.

vi. Though there is no hard and fast demarcation line in between a short-story and a long narrative fiction, a short-story should be read in one setting.

vii. Generally, there is no word limit for a short-story. According to some critics it should be within 1000- 4000 words. The story containing less than 1000 words can be classified as flash-fiction.

viii. According to the science fiction and fantasy writers of America the length of a short-story should be within 7500 words. (Nebula Award for short-story writing)

History: —

Though officially it is a modern genre, it dates back to the ancient oral tradition of storytelling. Legends, mythical tales, folk tales are also of this genre. In India it was a practice in the age of The Ramayana and The Mahabharat. The trail of short-story can also be traced in The Panchatantra, Hitopodesha, Kathasaritsagara. In Italy it started with Boccaccio’s Decameron. In that sense Chaucer was the pioneer of short-story in England. In the Middle East Thousand and One Night can be mentioned in this regard.

Reference:

i. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_story ii. https://www.bcssolutionbd.com/bangla/bangla-

literature/%E0%A6%9B%E0%A7%8B%E0%A6%9F%E0%A6%97%

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