REALISM IN THE CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN SHORT STORY

Starting from the premise that the short story observes the laws of narrative and the tenets of realism on its own terms, the paper will explore the realism in the work of two prominent American short story writers: Ernest Hemingway and Ann Beattie. Although considered to lack the "breadth", scope and universality of the novel and also accused of being fragmentary and subjective, short story can use its brevity to claim its nearer kinship to poetry and yet not violate its realistic frame. Declaring the need for compression, the form combines the increased rigor in detail selection and word choice with an emphasis on suggestive language, in order to convey emotion and render judgment with seeming objectivity within the confines of its generically limited space.