Contemporary Debates on the Short Story

José R. Ibáñez, José Francisco Fernández and Carmen M. Bretones [eds.] 

Contemporary Debates on the Short Story

Peter Lang, 2007, 240 pp.

BOOK SYNOPSIS :

For nearly a century of being underestimated as a literary genre, the short story is currently experiencing a revival. The editors of this collection of articles have brought together the contributions of nine outstanding scholars in the field of the short story to reveal some of the many directions in which the genre is expanding. This book is a reasoned and well-documented anthology which casts light on new aspects of the short story. It participates in the current trend of short story criticism, characterized by the gathering in one single volume of a diversity of approaches with the main aim of promoting discussion on this thriving area of literary studies. The editors of this volume believe that a fruitful tension may rise by putting side by side insights into a not so well known tradition, on the one hand, and fresh considerations on unexpected developments of the short story, on the other. All in all, the short story emerges as a dynamic and flexible form that reacts and adapts itself better than any other literary genre to the challenges oft he sceptical times we live in.

CONTENTS :

- José Jiménez Lozano: Algunas reflexiones sobre el cuento breve / Reflections on the short story

- Thomas Leitch: On the Margins of Mystery: The Detective in Poe and After

- José Antonio Álvarez Amorós: Reaching Out for Fictional Reality: Para-Derridean Forms of Différance in Henry James's «The Coxon Fund»

- Laurent Lepaludier: Visual Dynamics in «Bestre» by Wyndham Lewis

- Eibhear Walshe: Frank O'Connor's Lonely Voice: Dissent in the Modern Irish Short Story

- Farhat Iftekharuddin: Recalcitrant Discourse: The Uncompromising Content in East, West Stories

- Carmen Flys Junquera: Fluid Boundaries in Judith Ortiz Cofer's Silent Dancing - Adrienne E. Gavin: Painting it Black: Art, Crime and (Ir)resolution in Carol Swain's Graphic Short Story 'come down town'

- Charles E. May: The Secret Life in the Modern Short Story.

ABOUT THE EDITORS :

The Editors: José R. Ibáñez is associate lecturer in English at the University of Almería. His field of research is American literature.
José Francisco Fernández is senior lecturer in English Literature at the University of Almería. He has published widely on the contemporary British short story.
Carmen M. Bretones teaches English at the University of Almería, where she works as a Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow. Her research focuses on cognitivism.