Short story cycle
Encyclopedia
A short story cycle is a collection of short stories
in which the narratives are specifically composed and arranged with the goal of creating an enhanced or different experience when reading the group as a whole as opposed to its individual parts. Short story cycles are different from novels because the parts that would make up the chapters can all stand alone as a short story, each individually containing a beginning, middle and conclusion. When read as a group there is a tension created between the ideas of the individual stories, often showing changes that have occurred over time or highlighting the conflict between two opposing concepts or thoughts. Because of this dynamic, the stories need to have an awareness of what the other stories accomplish; therefore, cycles are usually written with the expressed purpose to create a cycle as opposed to being gathered and arranged later.
); the sequence, in which each story is linked to the ones before it but without a cumulative story that ties everything together (e.g., The Unvanquished
); the cluster, in which the links between stories are not always made obvious and in which the discontinuity between them is more significant than their unity (e.g., Go Down, Moses
); and the novella, in the classical sense of a collection of unrelated stories brought together by a frame story
and a narrator(s) (e.g., Winesburg, Ohio
).[All examples are Lundén's]
, Wolfram von Eschenbach
, Thomas Malory
and the Mabinogion
. Then there are the classic serialized novellas, many of them with frame stories
; this genre includes One Thousand and One Nights, The Decameron
, The Canterbury Tales
, etc. Dunn and Morris show how in the nineteenth century, the genre appeared in such forms as the village sketch
collection (e.g., Our Village
) and the patchwork collection (e.g., Louisa May Alcott
's Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag).
J. Gerald Kennedy describes the proliferation of the genre in the twentieth century, attributing it in part to the desire "to renounce the organizing authority of an omniscient narrator, asserting instead a variety of voices or perspectives reflective of the radical subjectivity of modern experience. Kennedy finds this proliferation in keeping with modernism
and its use of fragmentation, juxtaposition and simultaneism to reflect what the "multiplicity" that characterizes the century. Scholars such as James Nagel and Rocío G. Davis have pointed out that the story cycle has been very popular among ethnic U.S. authors. Davis argues that ethnic writers find the format useful "as a metaphor for the fragmentation and multiplicity of ethnic lives" insofar as it highights "the subjectivity of experience and understanding" by allowing "multiple impressionistic perspectives and fragmentation of simple linear history".
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
in which the narratives are specifically composed and arranged with the goal of creating an enhanced or different experience when reading the group as a whole as opposed to its individual parts. Short story cycles are different from novels because the parts that would make up the chapters can all stand alone as a short story, each individually containing a beginning, middle and conclusion. When read as a group there is a tension created between the ideas of the individual stories, often showing changes that have occurred over time or highlighting the conflict between two opposing concepts or thoughts. Because of this dynamic, the stories need to have an awareness of what the other stories accomplish; therefore, cycles are usually written with the expressed purpose to create a cycle as opposed to being gathered and arranged later.
Definitional debates
Scholars have pointed out that there is a wide range of possibilities that fall between simple collections and novels in their most-commonly understood form. One question is how well the stories stand up individually: chapters of a novel usually cannot stand alone, whereas stories in collections are meant to be fully independent. But many books have combined stories in such a way that the stories have varying degrees of interdependence, and it is these variations that cause problems in definition. Maggie Dunn and Ann Morris, for instance, claim that the stories in a story cycle are more independent than those in a composite novel, and James Nagel points out that both cycle and sequence are misleading, since cycle implies circularity and sequence implies temporal linearity, neither of which he finds to be essential to most such collections. Rolf Lundén has suggested four types of cycles, in order of decreasing unity: the cycle, in which the ending resolves the conflicts brought up at the beginning (e.g., The Bridge of San Luis ReyThe Bridge of San Luis Rey
The Bridge of San Luis Rey is American author Thornton Wilder's second novel, first published in 1927 to worldwide acclaim. It tells the story of several interrelated people who die in the collapse of an Inca rope-fiber suspension bridge in Peru, and the events that lead up to their being on the...
); the sequence, in which each story is linked to the ones before it but without a cumulative story that ties everything together (e.g., The Unvanquished
The Unvanquished
The Unvanquished is a novel by the American author William Faulkner, set in Yoknapatawpha County. It tells the story of the Sartoris family, who first appeared in the novel Sartoris . The Unvanquished takes place before that story, and is set during the American Civil War...
); the cluster, in which the links between stories are not always made obvious and in which the discontinuity between them is more significant than their unity (e.g., Go Down, Moses
Go Down, Moses
Go Down, Moses is a collection of seven related pieces of short fiction by American author William Faulkner, sometimes considered a novel...
); and the novella, in the classical sense of a collection of unrelated stories brought together by a frame story
Frame story
A frame story is a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories...
and a narrator(s) (e.g., Winesburg, Ohio
Winesburg, Ohio
Winesburg is an unincorporated community in southwestern Paint Township, Holmes County, Ohio, United States. The town sits on the crest of a hill in the Amish country of Ohio, with a quaint downtown containing antique shops. It lies along U.S. Route 62....
).[All examples are Lundén's]
History
In their study of the genre, Maggie Dunn and Ann Morris not that the form descends from two different traditions: There are texts that are themselves assembled from other texts, such as the way the tales from the Arthurian cycle is compiled in books by Chretien de TroyesChrétien de Troyes
Chrétien de Troyes was a French poet and trouvère who flourished in the late 12th century. Perhaps he named himself Christian of Troyes in contrast to the illustrious Rashi, also of Troyes...
, Wolfram von Eschenbach
Wolfram von Eschenbach
Wolfram von Eschenbach was a German knight and poet, regarded as one of the greatest epic poets of his time. As a Minnesinger, he also wrote lyric poetry.-Life:...
, Thomas Malory
Thomas Malory
Sir Thomas Malory was an English writer, the author or compiler of Le Morte d'Arthur. The antiquary John Leland as well as John Bale believed him to be Welsh, but most modern scholars, beginning with G. L...
and the Mabinogion
Mabinogion
The Mabinogion is the title given to a collection of eleven prose stories collated from medieval Welsh manuscripts. The tales draw on pre-Christian Celtic mythology, international folktale motifs, and early medieval historical traditions...
. Then there are the classic serialized novellas, many of them with frame stories
Frame story
A frame story is a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories...
; this genre includes One Thousand and One Nights, The Decameron
The Decameron
The Decameron, also called Prince Galehaut is a 14th-century medieval allegory by Giovanni Boccaccio, told as a frame story encompassing 100 tales by ten young people....
, The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. The tales are told as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at...
, etc. Dunn and Morris show how in the nineteenth century, the genre appeared in such forms as the village sketch
Sketch story
A sketch story, or sketch, is a piece of writing that is generally shorter than a short story, and contains very little, if any, plot. The term was most popularly-used in the late nineteenth century. As a literary work, it is also often referred to simply as the sketch.-Style:A sketch is mainly...
collection (e.g., Our Village
Our Village
Our Village is a collection of about 100 literary sketches of rural life written by Mary Russell Mitford , and originally published during the 1820s and 1830s. The series first appeared in The Lady's Magazine. The full title is: Our Village: Sketches of Rural Character and Scenery...
) and the patchwork collection (e.g., Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist. She is best known for the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. Little Women was set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, and published in 1868...
's Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag).
J. Gerald Kennedy describes the proliferation of the genre in the twentieth century, attributing it in part to the desire "to renounce the organizing authority of an omniscient narrator, asserting instead a variety of voices or perspectives reflective of the radical subjectivity of modern experience. Kennedy finds this proliferation in keeping with modernism
Modernist literature
Modernist literature is sub-genre of Modernism, a predominantly European movement beginning in the early 20th century that was characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional aesthetic forms...
and its use of fragmentation, juxtaposition and simultaneism to reflect what the "multiplicity" that characterizes the century. Scholars such as James Nagel and Rocío G. Davis have pointed out that the story cycle has been very popular among ethnic U.S. authors. Davis argues that ethnic writers find the format useful "as a metaphor for the fragmentation and multiplicity of ethnic lives" insofar as it highights "the subjectivity of experience and understanding" by allowing "multiple impressionistic perspectives and fragmentation of simple linear history".
Structure
Dunn and Morris list several methods that authors use to provide unity to the collection as a whole (the examples are theirs):- the cycle focuses on a geographical area: The Country of the Pointed FirsThe Country of the Pointed FirsThe Country of the Pointed Firs is an 1896 short story sequence by Sarah Orne Jewett which is considered by some literary critics to be her finest work...
, DublinersDublinersDubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They were meant to be a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century....
, The Women of Brewster PlaceThe Women of Brewster Place (novel)The Women of Brewster Place, is the first novel by American author Gloria Naylor. It was adapted into the 1989 miniseries The Women of Brewster Place and the 1990 ongoing series Brewster Place by Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions; it won the National Book Award in 1983...
, Like Water for ChocolateLike Water for ChocolateLike Water for Chocolate is a popular novel published in 1989 by first-time Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel.The novel follows the story of a young girl named Tita who longs her entire life to marry her lover, Pedro, but can never have him because of her mother's upholding of the family tradition... - the cycle focuses on a central protagonist: CosmicomicsCosmicomicsCosmicomics is a book of short stories by Italo Calvino first published in Italian in 1965 and in English in 1968. Each story takes a scientific "fact" , and builds an imaginative story around it...
, Winesburg, OhioWinesburg, OhioWinesburg is an unincorporated community in southwestern Paint Township, Holmes County, Ohio, United States. The town sits on the crest of a hill in the Amish country of Ohio, with a quaint downtown containing antique shops. It lies along U.S. Route 62....
, The Woman WarriorThe Woman WarriorThe Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts is a memoir by Maxine Hong Kingston, published by Vintage Books in 1975. Although there are many scholarly debates surrounding the official genre classification of the book, it can best be described as a work of creative non-fiction.Throughout...
, A Certain LucasJulio CortázarJulio Cortázar, born Jules Florencio Cortázar, was an Argentine writer. Cortázar, known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, influenced an entire generation of Spanish speaking readers and writers in the Americas and Europe.-Early life:Cortázar's parents, Julio José Cortázar and... - the cycle features a collective protagonist: In Our TimeIn Our Time (book)In Our Time is the first collection of short stories by Ernest Hemingway published by Boni & Liveright in New York in 1925, after a smaller edition of the book, titled in our time, had been published in Paris in 1924...
, Go Down, MosesGo Down, MosesGo Down, Moses is a collection of seven related pieces of short fiction by American author William Faulkner, sometimes considered a novel...
, Love MedicineLove MedicineLove Medicine is Louise Erdrich’s first novel, published in 1984. Erdrich revised and expanded the novel for an edition issued in 1993, and this version was considered the definitive edition until 2009 when Erdrich re-edited it...
, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New MestizaBorderlands/La Frontera: The New MestizaIn the first chapter of Borderlands , Gloria E. Anzaldúa uses striking imagery to illustrate the pain the border has brought to the mestizos by both dividing their culture and fencing them in – trapping them on one side. She then exemplifies the most important reason the deadly border exists: it is... - the cycle uses patterns to create coherence: Three LivesThree LivesThree Lives was Gertrude Stein's first published work. The book is separated into three stories, "The Good Anna," "Melanctha," and "The Gentle Lena."...
, Exile and the KingdomExile and the KingdomExile and the Kingdom is a 1957 collection of six short stories by French-Algerian writer Albert Camus.These works of fiction cover the whole variety of existentialism, or absurdism, as Camus himself insisted his philosophical ideas be called...
, The Golden ApplesEudora WeltyEudora Alice Welty was an American author of short stories and novels about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first living author to have her works published...
, A Yellow Raft in Blue WaterA Yellow Raft in Blue WaterA Yellow Raft in Blue Water is a novel written by Michael Dorris and published in 1987. It is written from the viewpoints of three people, Rayona, Christine, and Aunt Ida, exchanging viewpoints between different sections of the book.-Plot summary:... - the cycle focuses on story-telling: The Way to Rainy MountainThe Way to Rainy MountainThe Way to Rainy Mountain is a book by Pulitzer Prize winning author N. Scott Momaday. It is about the journey of Momaday's Kiowa ancestors from their ancient beginnings in the Montana area to their final war and surrender to the United States Cavalry at Fort Sill, and subsequent resettlement near...
, Pricksongs & DescantsRobert CooverRobert Lowell Coover is an American author and professor in the Literary Arts program at Brown University. He is generally considered a writer of fabulation and metafiction.-Life and works:...
, Lost in the FunhouseLost in the FunhouseLost in the Funhouse is a collection of loosely connected short stories that was originally published by John Barth in 1968. These postmodern stories examine the art of fiction writing, among other things, and seem to undermine the conventional and predictable nature of fiction...
, How to Make an American QuiltHow to Make an American QuiltHow to Make an American Quilt is a 1995 movie which was directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse and stars Winona Ryder, Maya Angelou, Ellen Burstyn and Anne Bancroft...
Examples
- A Good Scent from a Strange MountainA Good Scent from a Strange MountainA Good Scent from a Strange Mountain is a 1992 collection of short stories by Robert Olen Butler. It received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1993....
- A Hero of Our TimeA Hero of Our TimeA Hero of Our Time is a novel by Mikhail Lermontov, written in 1839 and revised in 1841. It is an example of the superfluous man novel, noted for its compelling Byronic hero Pechorin and for the beautiful descriptions of the Caucasus...
- A Sportsman's SketchesA Sportsman's SketchesA Sportsman's Sketches was an 1852 collection of short stories by Ivan Turgenev. It was the first major writing that gained him recognition...
- Annie JohnAnnie JohnAnnie John, a novel written by Jamaica Kincaid in 1985, details the growth of a girl in Antigua, an island in the Caribbean. It covers issues as diverse as mother-daughter relationships, lesbianism, racism, clinical depression, education, and the struggle between medicine based on "scientific fact"...
- CaneCane (novel)Cane is a 1923 novel by noted Harlem Renaissance author Jean Toomer. The novel is structured as a series of vignettes revolving around the origins and experiences of African Americans in the United States. The vignettes alternate in structure between narrative prose, poetry, and play-like...
- CathedralCathedral (stories)Cathedral is a collection of short stories by American writer Raymond Carver published in 1984.-The stories:The collection contains the following stories:*"Feathers"*"Chef's House"*"Preservation"*"The Compartment"*"A Small, Good Thing"*"Vitamins"...
- The Conjure WomanThe Conjure Woman (stories)The Conjure Woman is the title of an 1899 collection of seven stories by Charles W. Chesnutt, an important African American writer from the post-Civil War South; it was his first book...
- The Country of the Pointed FirsThe Country of the Pointed FirsThe Country of the Pointed Firs is an 1896 short story sequence by Sarah Orne Jewett which is considered by some literary critics to be her finest work...
- DublinersDublinersDubliners is a collection of 15 short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. They were meant to be a naturalistic depiction of Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20th century....
- The Finer Grain
- Go Down, MosesGo Down, MosesGo Down, Moses is a collection of seven related pieces of short fiction by American author William Faulkner, sometimes considered a novel...
- The House on Mango StreetThe House on Mango StreetThe House on Mango Street is a coming-of-age novel by Mexican-American writer Sandra Cisneros, published in 1984. It deals with a young Latina girl, Esperanza Cordero, growing up in Chicago with Chicanos and Puerto Ricans. Esperanza is determined to "say goodbye" to her impoverished Latino...
- The Housebreaker of Shady Hill and Other Stories
- How the García Girls Lost Their AccentsHow the García Girls Lost Their AccentsHow the García Girls Lost Their Accents is a 1991 novel written by Dominican-American poet, novelist, and essayist Julia Alvarez. Told in reverse chronological order and narrated from shifting perspectives, the text possesses distinct qualities of a bildungsroman novel...
- In Our TimeIn Our Time (book)In Our Time is the first collection of short stories by Ernest Hemingway published by Boni & Liveright in New York in 1925, after a smaller edition of the book, titled in our time, had been published in Paris in 1924...
- The Joy Luck ClubThe Joy Luck ClubThe Joy Luck Club is a best-selling novel written by Amy Tan. It focuses on four Chinese American immigrant families in San Francisco, California who start a club known as "the Joy Luck Club," playing the Chinese game of mahjong for money while feasting on a variety of foods...
- The Last of the Menu Girls
- "Legends of the Province House"
- Love MedicineLove MedicineLove Medicine is Louise Erdrich’s first novel, published in 1984. Erdrich revised and expanded the novel for an edition issued in 1993, and this version was considered the definitive edition until 2009 when Erdrich re-edited it...
- Monkeys (novel)
- Mrs. Spring FragranceMrs. Spring FragranceMrs. Spring Fragrance was a popular short story collection by Sui Sin Far, pen name of Chinese-British-Canadian-American writer Edith Maude Eaton...
- Nine StoriesNine Stories (Salinger)Nine Stories is a collection of short stories by American fiction writer J. D. Salinger released in May 1953. It includes two of his most famous short stories, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "For Esmé – with Love and Squalor". Nine Stories (1953) is a collection of short stories by American...
- Old Creole Days
- Olinger StoriesOlinger StoriesOlinger Stories: A selection is a short story collection by John Updike first published in 1964. This volume contained no stories newly published in book form, but reprinted stories from Updike's earlier collections...
- The Piazza TalesThe Piazza TalesThe Piazza Tales is a collection of short stories by Herman Melville, which he published with Dix & Edwards in 1856 in the United States. A British edition followed shortly afterward. Except for the title story, "The Piazza," all of the stories had appeared in Putnam's Monthly over the years...
- The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
- The Things They CarriedThe Things They CarriedThe Things They Carried is a collection of related stories by Tim O'Brien, about a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War, originally published in hardcover by Houghton Mifflin, 1990...
- Three LivesThree LivesThree Lives was Gertrude Stein's first published work. The book is separated into three stories, "The Good Anna," "Melanctha," and "The Gentle Lena."...
- Three TalesThree Tales (Flaubert)Three Tales is a work by Gustave Flaubert that was originally published in French in 1877. It consists of the short stories "A Simple Heart", "Saint Julian" and "Hérodias"...
- Uncle Tom's ChildrenUncle Tom's ChildrenUncle Tom's Children is a collection of short stories by African American author Richard Wright, also the author of Black Boy, Native Son, and The Outsider. Uncle Tom's Children includes four short stories and was successful when it was first published in 1938...
- The Wide Net
- Winesburg, OhioWinesburg, OhioWinesburg is an unincorporated community in southwestern Paint Township, Holmes County, Ohio, United States. The town sits on the crest of a hill in the Amish country of Ohio, with a quaint downtown containing antique shops. It lies along U.S. Route 62....
- The Women of Brewster PlaceThe Women of Brewster PlaceThe Women of Brewster Place may refer to:*The Women of Brewster Place , a 1982 novel by Gloria Naylor*The Women of Brewster Place , a 1989 television miniseries based upon the novel...