If we are to to believe Edgar Allan Poe’s famous theory of what good
literature is and does, achieving what he calls a “unity of effect,” we
might find an understanding in the form he mastered best: the short
story. Yet while living in a time when even the brevity of the short
story appears to be overtaken by flash fiction (and thus pays witness to
an ever decreasing attention span among possible audiences), we may
wonder about the status of contemporary short story authors and their
still existing readers. This course, however, is not looking for the
place of the American short story's reading public. Instead it offers an
invitation to move us, avid readers, out of our comfort zones and to
test the limits of American short stories. As we will soon see, the
literary “totality” of short fiction still results from certain
essential elements that an author needs to maintain in “constructing a
story” and to produce what Poe once called a “vivid effect.” Hence, to
make you a diligent and passionate part of the reading public we will
delve into a number of topics and debates as triggered by a synchronic
study of both canonical twentieth century American short stories and
more contemporary examples. In doing so, we will explore the art of
brevity, the manifold themes and possibilities of the contemporary
American short story.
- Dozent/in: Marcel Hartwig