Ernest Hemingway and the Short Story

Zennure Köseman

Description

Ernest Hemingway pioneered the short story genre by prioritizing economy of prose. He also wrote the shortest short story: his famous six-word “For Sale: Baby Shoes Never Worn!” The whole story embodies these words, which are semantically meaningful. Influenced by Edgar Allan Poe’s “single-effect” theory, each story drives the reader to concentrate on a substantial controlling idea that directs the story from beginning to end. 

A writer of the “Lost Generation,” Hemingway went to Europe during World War I to master writing. He also served at the front. He used his experiences then, before, and after to craft a highly original approach to the short story, involving thematic issues around marriage, war, friendship, bullfighting, love, nature, and enemies. He also explored themes of alienation, isolation, existential philosophy, meaninglessness, nihilism, and aimlessness. Hemingway’s wide perspective invites an intense subjectivity, uniting with readers who become an active part of the interpretation. Zennure Köseman’s new book offers a deft exploration of this craft.

Sujets

• Literary Criticism
• 20th Century
• Modern
• América
• Literature
• Modern history
• General officer
• Modernism
• General
• American
• Short Stories
• History
• Obermodern-Zutzendorf
• Ernest Hemingway

Informations

• Publié par: Academica Press
• Date de parution: 15 janvier 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781680537116
• Langue: English

Extrait

Ernest Hemingway and the Short Story
Zennure Köseman
Academica Press
Washington~London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Köseman, Zennure, author.
Title: Ernest hemingway and the short story | Zennure Köseman
Description: Washington : Academica Press, 2023.
Identifiers: LCCN 2023934294 | ISBN 9781680537109 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781680537116 (ebook)
Copyright 2023 Zennure Köseman
Contents Preface Acknowledgements Ernest Hemingway as A Frontier of the Short-Short Story Genre Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. American Literature and the Evolution of the Short-Short Story Chapter 3. Autobiographical Untitled Vignettes Settled Before Each Main Short-Short Story Chapter 4. Single-Effect Theory and the Impact of Edgar Allen Poe on Ernest Hemingway: Alienation Chapter 5. Getrude Stein Justifies Ernest Hemingway as Being Lost Chapter 6. Alienation Leads Hemingway for Existentialist Outlook: “NADA” Chapter 7. Ernest Hemingway’s Short-Short Stories a.“Judgement of Manitou” b. “A Matter of Colour” c.“Sepi Jingan” d. “Nick Sat Against the Wall” e. “A Very Short Story” f. “The Revolutionist” g. “Banal Story” h. “A Simple Enquiry” i. “On the Quai at Smyrna” j. “One Reader Writes” k. “Old Man at the Bridge” l. “The Good Lion” m. “The Faithful Bull” n. “The Indians Moved Away” o. “Three Shots” p. “For Sale: Baby Shoes Never Worn!” Conclusion Works Cited
Preface
This book intends to explore the development of the short story genre and defines the evolution of the short-short story. Having the same characteristics with the short story, the new genre focuses on writing in a limited wording. If any of the word is omitted in the text, the whole meaning of the story would be unclear. Short-short stories are known with various names in different contries. Some of multiple names are “flash fiction,” “short-short story” (Asimov, 1992, p. 32), “micro-fiction” (Stern, 1996, p 16; Nelles, 2012, pp. 88-89), “sudden-fiction” (Baxter, 1997, p. 87), “skinny-fiction,” “smoke-long stories” (Shapard-Thomas, 2007, p. 11). There are Turkish connotations such as “Küçürek Öykü” (Korkmaz and Deveci, 2011, p. 11), kısa kısa öykü, kıpkısa öykü, ani kurmaca, avuç içine sığmayan öykü, (Tosun, 2014, p. 271), çelimsiz kurmaca, mini kurmaca (Peden, 1997, p. 110), and küçük ölçekli kurmaca (Erden, 2010, p. 318). As multiple names signify, they have transformations in different countries’ literature. All titles have limited word count and have a wide meaningfulness in themselves.
Ernest Hemingway can be called as a frontier of the short-short story genre due to having several short-shorts in the Modern Period and onwards. This hints that there is the evolution of this genre with Hemingway. His short-shorts, especially “For Sale: Baby Shoes Never Worn!,” have semantic depth and encourages readers to finish reading them in one sitting. However, his most stories are open-ended which emphasize that reading public finds out new conclusions and reflects the reader and author interaction. Throughout their repetitive reading new evaluations of stories appear.
Hemingway concurrently writes very short informative parts of the stories in different writing styles. To illustrate, his vignettes are shorter than the short-shorts and informs readers about previous unexpressed features. Therefore, they are also in consideration in short-short stories. Moreover, his stories have a single-effect that directs all of them. Here, Edgar Allen Poe impacts Hemingway’s consistency of writing in single-effect. In this book, the theme of alienation is the single-effect that attracts readers for reading them in a short process.. All his stories revolves around this. As Melvin Seeman has also stated meaninglessness, normlessness, powerlessness, void, and isolation are significant to mention about in alienation.
It is important that Getrude Stein justifies Ernest Hemingway as being lost in social life, because it is the time of the First World War. Hemingway is among the “Lost Generation” and is an expatriate who goes to several different countries to serve in the war period. As an ambulance driver, he serves in many countries and, thereby, continues writing his literary works despite being accepted as one of the lost generation. He is a creative writer so that in any enviroment he produces new novels, short and short-short stories.
Since Hemingway lives in the war process, he has war hatred that has meaninglessness, nothingness, and void in itself for him. Everyone loses their akins in the war fronts. Therefore, his “nada” is inevitable to be noticed in his literary works. According to Hemingway, nada is the philosophy of nothingness and meaninglessness. Therefore, “aada” leads Hemingway to have an Existentialist outlook. As a whole, all his vignettes and his short-short stories will prove that he is a frontier writer of the short-short story genre by writing in early twentieth century.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my heartiest thanks to my dear colleague academics for guiding me with their unique comments, invaluable supervision and moral support through all the stages of writing process. I owe much to all my friends who have provided me with the warmest kind of love, friendship and moral support.
Finally, I would like to dedicate this book to my beloved family without whose endless support, tolerance and care I would have certainly had a very hard time completing this book.
Ernest Hemingway as A Frontier of the Short-Short Story Genre
Chapter 1. Introduction
This book highlights Ernest Hemingway’s short-short stories that focus on the alienation thematic basis causing the creation of various interpretations while reading. Hemingay is interested in Edgar Allen Poe’s single-effect theory to have a unity in literary texts. To begin with the analysis of the short-short, it is important that there are similar characteristics between a short and a short-short story: 1 There is a particular point of view, plot organization, characterization, time, setting and the conclusion. Similar to “the short-story [that] combines in a new way narrative interest, brevity, unity of emotional impression, and characteristic plot” (Notestein, 2014, p. 3), short-short stories obtain much more brevity in limited wording so that readers should have a density of reading to acquire a comprehensive analysis. “The restrictions of the short-story form necessarily affect the range of its possible subject-matter” (Notestein, 2014, 5). This emphasizes that as much as the wording is limited, then, meanings in words and lines are impressive in short-short stories. It is clear that short stories differentiate from the short-short stories, because they are not explicit, instead they are implicit so that new wordings are reserved in it as they become meaningful solely through a comprehensive densed reading.
The present study intends to approach Ernest Hemingway as the pioneer of the short-short story genre through having a literary descriptive analytical method in American Literature. It is necessary to indicate that Edgar Allen Poe is influential in his single-effect of alienation in the thematic basis. Focusing on a specific controlling thematic basis or words, the readers will be much more interested to read the stories. As the focus of this book is short-short stories, it is previously significant to underline the pre-existence of short stories that pave the way for the beginning of short-short stories. Before concerning them, this book condences with vignettes that are even shorter than short-short stories.
Modern Period is the literary field of misery, emptiness and destruction for individuals. It is a personal estimation that the public is substantilly traumatized from the psychological central sense of alienation that emerges other various thematic issues. Meaninglessness, nothinglessness, normlessness, anxiety, fear, distrust, and disconfidence are some of them. Thus, the significance of various philosophical evaluations concurrently are in existence while defining Hemingway’s period under “The Lost Generation” because of these themes.
It is premost concern that the Modern Period writers in American Literature construct a private group of unity under coining themselves as “The Lost Generation” due to being traumatized because of World War I. There are critics condencing to study the reasons defining those authors under the concept of the lost. Under each literary output, the subtantial connecting link is the thematic basis of alienation and the existentialist outlook in social living. Such an innovative consideration necessitates the analysis of alienation or isolation thematic perspectives and the Lost Generation concept as well as the existentialist philosophical assessments. After these perspectives, it is notewothy to analyze Hemingway’s original short-short stories in addition to some other short stories and search about the secondary sources regarding Hemingway. They are written in the Roaring Twenties in which individuals go for war fronts and, therefore, lose their lives in most cases or else become alienated and isolated due to losing any of their akins at that time.
Ernest Hemingway has precisely his novels and short stories in the world. Yet, when his short-shorts are the concern to deal with, a pile of extensive secondary sources can be analyzed when compared with his novels and short fiction. There has not, yet, been a previous study intending to explore most of his short-short stories at the same time: Hence, to be more precise, this book intends to illuminate on Hemingway’s short-short story genre that revolves around the thematic basis of alienation.
The reason to focus on Ernest Hemingway is that he can be accepted as a frontier in American short-short story genre. He is efficient in his short and short-short fiction as well as his vignettes written before each of the short and short-short story in Nick Adams Stories which is also reflected