Aimed at writers, students, teachers, and critics interested in the short story as a genre, this rich collection of essays examines theoretical issues raised about this demanding literary form. Preface xi Acknowledgments xiii Introduction xv Part One Basic Issues of Story Stories 3(12) Randall Jarrell Story as Exemplum---Exemplum as Story: On the Pragmatics and Poetics of Narrative Texts 15(29) Karl-Heinz Stierle The Tale as Genre in Short Fiction 44(15) W. S. Penn Part Two Early Formalist Theories Poe on Short Fiction 59(14) Edgar Allan Poe The Philosophy of the Short-Story 73(8) Brander Matthews O. Henry and the Theory of the Short Story 81(10) B. M. Ejxenbaum Part Three Issues of Definition The Short Story: The Long and the Short of It 91(23) Mary Louise Pratt On Defining Short Stories 114(17) Allan H. Pasco The Nature of Knowledge in Short Fiction 131(16) Charles E. May Part Four Historical Considerations Notes on the Novella 147(18) Graham Good From Tale to Short Story: The Emergence of a New Genre in the 1850's 165(17) Robert F. Marler Vision and Form: The English Novel and the Emergence of the Short Story 182(13) Wendell V. Harris Part Five The Modern Short Story The Short Story 195(4) Anton Chekhov Chekhov and the Modern Short Story 199(19) Charles E. May Defining the Short Story: Impressionism and Form 218(13) Suzanne C. Ferguson The Lyric Short Story: The Sketch of a History 231(14) Eileen Baldeshwiler Part Six Authors on Aspects of The Short Story Some Aspects of the Short Story 245(11) Julio Cortazar The Faber Book of Modern Short Stories 256(7) Elizabeth Bowen The Flash of Fireflies 263(5) Nadine Gordimer The Hallucinatory Point 268(5) Maurice Shadbolt On Writing 273(8) Raymond Carver Part Seven Cognitive Approaches to Story Story Comprehension: An Introduction 281(20) Teun A. Van Dijk A Cognitive Approach to Storyness 301(11) Susan Lohafer A Selected, Annotated Bibliography of the Short Story 312