HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND MAIN FEATURES OF THE SHORT STORY

Abstract

Short Story is not the type of new literature. It has a long history that can be taken until the days when humanity feels the need to tell. Folk tales, fables, anecdotes, jokes and many other products formed in oral tradition have served to bring up the short story. These narratives don’t create a short story in today’s sense, but it helps us get important information about the history of the short story. In Western literature, short story essays were first revealed by Boccacio in the 14th century; in the 19th century, the short story was considered a type of literature. After this period the short story is called “the modern short story”. This type of narrative which came as a short from the past and later turned into a modern short story has become “a very short story” by getting shorter today. The main features of short stories today are to give what is want to be told in the shortest but most intense way; to have a poetic style; to adopt an image-based narrative; and to incorporate the reader into the process of making sense of the story.
This study, which is kept on for demonstrating the development of the short story in Western literature and the characteristics of the genre, consists of two parts. In chapter one, the birth of the short story was examined. During this review genre that helps for the development of the short story and the important date, ranges have been included. In the second part of the study, the relationship between the short story and the novel genre was examined and the basic features of the short story were discussed.