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Postmodernism, as a mode of the contemporary short story, has been clearly established and recognized by short story theorists. But postmodern theory, as pervasive as it has become among academics in the last half century, has scarcely been applied to the short story genre in particular. Many contemporary scholars, nonetheless, are currently making use of certain postmodern thematic approaches to help them determine meanings of particular short stories. T Short story theory began with Edgar Allan Poe's review of Twice-Told Tales, a collection of stories by his contemporary, Nathaniel Hawthorne. But theoretical discussions of the short story languished until modernism and the new criticism provided impetus for further development. Surprisingly, though, the next large critical movement, postmodernism, failed to address the short story as a genre. But while there is little postmodern theory concerning the short story, contemporary scholars have used certain postmodern critical approaches to help determine meaning. This book demonstrates the effect of postmodern theory on the study of the short story genre. The expert contributors to this volume examine such topics as genre and form, the role of the reader, cultural and ethnic diversity, and feminist perspectives on the short story. In doing so, they apply postmodern theoretical approaches to international short stories, be they in the traditional mode, the modern mode, or the postmodern mode. The volume looks at fiction by Edith Wharton, Henry James, Katherine Mansfield, and other authors, and at Iranian short fiction, the postcolonial short story, the fantastic in short fiction, and other subjects. Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- PART I: DISCOVERING THE SHAPES OF THE SHORT STORY -- 1 The Challenge of "June Recital": Generic Considerations in the Structure of The Golden Apples -- 2 The End of the World: Closure in the Fantasies of Borges, Calvino, and Millhauser -- 3 Genre and the Work of Reading in Mansfield's "Prelude" and "At the Bay" -- 4 Death and the Reader: James's "The Beast in the Jungle" -- 5 Sandra Benítez and the Nomadic Text -- PART II: EXPLORING THE WORLD OF THE SHORT STORY -- 6 Postmodern Issues in Janette Turner Hospital's Nature-Dominated Short Stories "The End-of-the-line End-of-the-world Disco" and "Our Own Little Kakadu" -- 7 The Virtuous Complaint: Iranian Short Fiction of the 1960s-1970s -- 8 Jean Toomer's Cane -- 9 Homi K. Bhabha and the Postcolonial Short Story -- PART III: ENCOUNTERING ISSUES OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY -- 10 Wharton's Short Fiction of War: The Politics of "Coming Home" -- 11 Living in a World of Make-Believe: Fantasy, Female Identity, and Modern Short Stories by Women in the British Tradition -- 12 The Fourierist Parables of Guy Davenport -- Selected Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z -- About the Editors and Contributors.
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