SHORT FICTION

SHORT FICTION

Cave painting showing the outcome of a hunting expedition or the imagined exploits of a fantastic beast testify to the ancient roots of the human love for stories. From the time when people first discovered how to communicate through spoken words or written symbols, they have instructed, amazed, warned, and entertained each other with tales both true and fictional.

Early Forms of Fiction

Allegory

Allegories are stories in which each character, action, and setting stands for one specific meaning. For Example, in John Bunyan’s allegory A Pilgrim’s Progress (1678/1684), a character name Christian represents the virtues associated with the ideal member of that faith. In the allegory, Christian passes through landscape of temptations and dangers with areas symbolically named the “Slough of Despond,” the “City of Destruction,” and the “Valley of Humiliation” before he reaches the “Celestial City”. Allegories, which are intended to teach moral lessons, may also be written as poetry and drama.

Myth
Myths often tell stories of ancient deities, sometimes describing their exploits, sometimes explaining how a particular god or goddess came into being. Other myths address the mysteries of nature, including the creation of the universe and its diverse inhabitants. Ancient people probably invented myth as a way to make sense of the world in which they lived. For instance, gods and goddess were describe as experience human emotions—hate, jealousy, love, passion, despair—and as facing the human conflicts these feelings create

Legend
Legends recount the amazing achievements of fictional characters or exaggerate the exploits of people who actually lived. For example, the story of Paul Bunyan. Legends—which often include the entertaining tall tale—frequently praise and confirm traits that a society particularly values. In Indonesia is like the story of Gunung Tangkuban Perahu.

Fairy Tale like Myth
Fairy Tales focus on supernatural beings and events. They are not peopled by gods and goddesses, however, but by giants, troll, fairy godmothers, and talking animals who happily coexist with humans—both royalty and common folk. Fairy tales do not attempt to explain the natural world or to affirm national values but instead focus on the struggle between clearly defined good and evil. In fairy tales, good always prevails over evil, although—in those that have not been censored to suit modern sensibilities—the “good” is often achieved by rather terrifying means. Figures of evil drop into posts of boiling oil, are flayed alive, or are cooked into (evidently tasty) pies.

Fable
The best-known fables are those that were told by Greek slave Aesop. Fables usually feature animals that can talk and, in general, act just as rationally (and just irrationally) as human. Unlike myth, legend, and fairy tales—but like allegories—fables state an explicit lesson. For instance, the story of race between boastful Hare. In Indonesia is like the story of Rajawali dan gagak.

Parable
Like fable, parables teach a lesson or explain a complex spiritual concept. Unlike fable, which tells a story that demonstrates the stated moral, a parable is a narrative that serves as an analogy for the principle being taught. For Example, the New Testament contains many parables that suggest the relationship between God and human.


Modern Short Fiction

All of these early forms of short fiction still exist today. In the nineteenth century, however, a new form evolved. It was exemplified by the work of writers such as Guy de Maupassant in France; Anton Chekhov in Russia; George Eliot and Thomas Hardy in Great Britain; and Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Mary Wilkins Freeman, and Sarah Orne Jewett in the United States.

The Realistic Short Story
The nineteenth century realistic short story differed from early forms of fiction in many ways. Nineteenth-century realistic short story focused on scenes and event of everyday life. Ordinary men, women, and children—not fabulous god, powerful giant, and talking animals—inhabited these stories. Characters were developed more fully; rather than representing on primary trait, the central figure of short stories exhibited the complexities and contradictions of real people. Plots became more intricate to suggest the working of character ‘soul and minds and to depict their external actions. Setting became more than briefly sketched backdrops. Time and place were described in vivid detail. Most important, realistic short stories moved away from teaching one particular moral or lesson. Although the theme of a short story often suggested certain values, readers were expected to find meaning for themselves. The author no longer served up a moral or lesson in a direct and obvious way.

The realistic short story, as it evolved from the nineteenth century to the twentieth, usually focuses on a conflict experienced by a character or group of characters. Often, by facing that conflict, the characters come to know them-selves (and other people) more fully. A short story that shows a young person moving from innocence to experience is called a story of initiation. A related form is the story of epiphany, in which a character experiences a conflict that leads to a sudden insight or profound understanding. (The word “epiphany” comes from the name of the Christian feast day celebrating the revelation of the infant Jesus to the Magi. These wise men, who had traveled from the East, returned to their own countries deeply moved and changed by what they had seen in Bethlehem).

The Nonrealistic Short story
The nineteenth century also saw the development of the non realistic short story. For example, many of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s stories introduced supernatural being, strange setting, or plot events that could not be explained by traditional laws of the nature. Although these nonrealistic stories often incorporated elements of earlier forms of short fiction (For instance, character—human or animal—with unusual powers), they shared certain qualities with the realistic short story. Their characters were more developed and had spiritual and psychological depth, their plots were more complex, and their settings were more fully described. Most important, their themes often led the reader to speculated, wonder, and question rather than to accept a directly states moral or lesson.
In the twentieth century, writers such as Leslie Marmon Silko (“the Man to send Rain Cloud”) continue the tradition of the nonrealistic short story. Unbound by realistic dimensions of time and space, unfettered by the laws of physics or even by the convention of human psychology, these writers push their imaginations—and the imagination of their readers—in new and sometimes unsettling directions. Reading non realistic fiction requires what the nineteenth century poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge called “the willing of suspension of disbelief”—the willingness to read, enjoy, and ponder setting, plots and characters that seem strange and unconventional. Even more so than realistic fiction, nonrealistic stories lead in many diverse directions rather than toward theme.

So, Short fiction in early form to modern form have been fully developed and changed. Those certainly impact from the development of human taught as far as the development of the first human settle in the earth.




Reference:

- Responding to Literature, Judith A. Stanford, McGraw Hill companies, 2006.
- Fiction, Jane Bachman Gordon and Karen Keuhmer, McGraw Hill companies, 1999