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The Short Story in America : 1880 – 1920

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The Short Story in America : 1880 – 1920 Navjyot / Vol. I / Issue – II / 2012 ISSN 2277-8063 The Short Story in America : 1880 – 1920 Dr. D C Punse Head, Department of English, Amolakchand Mahavidyalaya, Yavatmal --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction : Modernist activity between 1880 and 1920 sustained and generated a vital sequence of experimental movements and phases. The 1900s certainly turned the mood, and began on a more modest note. It started with great ferment in the world of philosophy, ideas, and political thought. Invention in the form was the chief credo of the literary artist. “Single Effect” doctrine which invites a reunifying approach to familiar short story characteristics such as ellipsis, ambiguity, and resonance had been on dominating force. The writer’s approach indicated how form and context worked together. Narrative length and ending gave way to innovative dialogue presentation. Realism, which dominated the writing of fiction during the latter part of the nineteenth century in Europe and the United States was a reaction against the stereotyped sentimentalizing of the Romantic Movement that prevailed in the early part of the century. American writers started focusing on the external world and the everyday life. ‘Local Colour’ movement was on the move. The short story writers of this period offered a new technique and a short experience in comparison with many things. A critical survey of the American short story writers of this period is definitely an interesting study. Development of Short Story : The first short story writer of this series is Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909), who was known for her short stories of New England Life. She was one of the first ‘Local Colourist’ of New England. She began her writing career with the publication of ‘The Country Of The Pointed Fir’ in 1896. It was a remarkable work of fiction handling the realist technique of local colour. She laid more emphasis on Romantic themes. Her best known story, “ A White Heron ” published in 1886 focuses on the conflict between flesh and spirit and the quest for a transcendent reality beyond the ordinary. She focused more on character than plot. The most frequent criticism of Jewett was that she ignored the coarse actualities of life and that her depictions of locale were romantic and idealized. Jewett’s work has often been criticized as nothing more than ‘sketches’, with very little plot and therefore, not worthy of much critical study. Jewett herself realized this about her work, writing to her editor, “It seems that I can furnish the theatre and show you the actors, and the scenery, and the audience, but there never is any play!.....I seem to get very bewildered when I try to make these come in for secondary parts,…. I am certain I could not write one of the usual magazine stories. If the editors will take the sketchy kind and people like to read them, is not it as well to do that and do it successfully as to make hopeless efforts to achieve something in another line which 63 Navjyot / Vol. I / Issue – II / 2012 ISSN 2277-8063 runs much higher?” (qt in Biography 61) 1 Her ‘ The Queen’s Twin and Other Tales’ was published in 1899. Her life ended in a tragic paralytic attack. Another short story writer, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1852-1930) was a distinguished writer for her realistic stories of New England life. Freeman began writing stories and verse for children while still a teenager to help and support her family and was quickly successful. Her A Humble Romance and Other Stories was published in 1887. Her stories deal mostly with New England life and are best among the other kind. Her ‘ A New England Nun and Other Stories’ came in 1891 which focused on a central character who was shut away from the flow of everyday life. “ The emphasis in the story is on the character’s sense of an almost ‘artistic’ control over the order and neatness of her solitary home and her rejection of the masculine disorder threatened by her impending marriage.” 2 Her two short story collections ‘ The Wind in the Rose Bush and Other Stories of the Supernatural ‘ (1903) and ‘ A Far-away Melody and Other Stories’ (1902) are remarkable and rejuvenated. Realistic approach made her all stories modern in a broader sense. William Dean Howells (1837-1920), Ohio born writer began his life as a printer and journalist. The critics called him ‘ The Father of American Realists’ . Most critics nicknamed him as ‘The Dean of American Letters’. His Christmas story ‘ Christmas Every Day’ made him popular among the readers and the critics. As a realist, his view on realism is that it is “nothing more and nothing less than the fruitful treatment of material.” 3 He was a very confirmed writer of short story. In addition to the emphasis on local colour, another result of the shift from Romanticism to Realism in the latter part of the century was a shift from the focus on form to the focus on content. He was the initiator of the school of American realists who derived through the Russians, from Balzac and had little sympathy with any other type of fiction, although he frequently encouraged new writers in whom he discovered new ideas. In defense of the real, as opposed to the ideal, he wrote, “I hope the time coming when not only the artist, but the common, average man, who always has the standard of the arts in his power, will have also the courage to apply this, and will reject the ideal grasshopper wherever he finds it, in science, in literature, in art, because it is not ‘simple, natural, and honest’, because it is not like a real grasshopper, the self-devoted, adventurous, good old romantic card- board grasshopper, must die out before the simple, honest, and natural grasshopper can have a fair field.” 4 His best and popular short story ‘Editha’ (1905) had driven him to the rank of ‘ Men of Letters’ in America. Henry James (1843-1916) is regarded as one of the key figures of the 19 th century literary realism. He settled in England becoming a British subject in 1915, one year before his death. He was an innovator in a broader sense. His imaginative use of point of view, interior monologue, and possibly unreliable narrators in tales brought a new depth and interests to narrative fiction. He at first chiefly concerned himself with the impact of the older civilization of Europe upon American life. He was one of the major figures of trans-Atlantic literature. His works frequently juxtapose characters from the old world (Europe), embodying a feudal civilization that is beautiful, often 64 Navjyot / Vol. I / Issue – II / 2012 ISSN 2277-8063 corrupt and alluring, and from the New World (United States), where people are often brash, open, and assertive and embody the virtues- freedom and a more highly evolved moral character - of the new American society. He explores this clash of personalities and cultures in stories of personal relationships in which power is exercised well or badly. His protagonists were often young American women facing oppression or abuse, James argued in his influential essay ‘The Art of Fiction’ (1884) that a fictional work is a “living thing, all one and continuous, like any other organism, and in proportion as its lives will it be found….that in each of the parts there is something of each of the other parts”. James’ famous story “ The Real Thing” came in 1893 focused on ‘impression’ and ‘illusion’ . Because he says that the supreme virtue of a work of fiction is “the success with which the author has produced the illusion of life”. He produced a number of very short stories in which he achieved notable compression of sometimes complex subjects. His “The Turn of the Scr ew” (1898) is a ghost story that has lent well to operatic and film adaptation. “The Beast in the Jungle” (1903) is almost universally considered to be one of James’ finest short stories. The story treats the universal themes like loneliness, fate, love and death. His last effort in last narrative, “The Jolly Corner ” (1908) is usually held to be one of James’ best ghost stories. His contribution to American short story is can not challengeable and challenged inseparable. Stephen Crane (1871-1900) is claimed by many critics that Crane marks the true beginnings of the modern short story in the United States. He published two fine collections of short stories, “The Open Boat ” (1898) and “ The Monster” (1899). Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism and Impressionism. He is recognized by modern critics as one of the most innovative writers of his generation. He is regarded as the perfect impressionist. For the impressionist, reality cannot be separated from the superimposition of attitude, emotions and feelings of the perceiver. “ The Blue Hotel ” published in 1898 is Crane’s best known impressionistic story. It is Crane’s impressionism the combination of the subjectivity of Romanticism with the so called objectivity of realism-that does most to effect this transition. Crane struggled to make a living as a free-lance writer, contributing features, sketches to various New York newspapers. From the beginning, Crane wished to show what it felt like to be in a war by writing “a psychological portrayal of fear” 5. His fiction is typically categorized as representative of Naturalism, Realism, impressionism or a mixture of the three. He was not only an impressionist but also influenced by the movement itself. H G Wells remarked upon “the great influence of the studio” on Crane’s work.
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