Distinctiveness of the literary art form of short story and the objectives of the Students as readers of short stories – Part - III

How short a short story should be?

The last hundred and fifty years have witnessed certain well marked features to be associated with short stories. This art form, has nevertheless retained its vital characteristics very well, which are unmistakably its own. Critics and scholars are now of the opinion that a short story is supposed to be in length between about two to seven thousand words. Shorter than this, would be inadequate even to be called a anecdote, and longer than this, would tend to make it a novelette.

The idea of unity

The paramount quality, which is invariably associated with the short story, is the all pervading sense of unity it tries to encompass and project throughout the length and breadth of its body. However, they are not the same as the three unities linked with the concept of the classical drama. The unifying property of a fine technical execution is not that important here, as compared to the concept, convincing delivery of a single message or the proper presence and manifestations of the aesthetic objectives, the short story is so famous for. The implication is that it is not an expansive thing which would accept any extraneous element or component that comes its way.
The short story must present a single idea, a unified situation or impression, rendering it with an uncanny precision in the most creative manner. These factors distinguish it from a novel. The novel is expansive whereas the short story is compressive, concise and pithy. The short story must be cohesive from the very beginning to its end, and so must avoid all, that is unnecessary or irrelevant to the unique purpose it sets out to achieve. The conditions, without doubts, are rigid, but as the artist has to work under these stringent requirements, he is made to give his best while adopting this particular fictional art medium. And that is why a good short story writer chooses an action or a character or an atmosphere or simply an emotional tone as the subject matter of his art. He has to be unusually focused to employ the best of his art in selection of his materials, as well as in giving it the desired shape to create an unforgettable effect on the readers’ mind.

The final twist or the element of surprise

The element of surprise is another landmark aspect of a short story. There is no hard and fast rule that every single short story must have this feature, but there must be some secret hidden up its sleeve till the very end. This serves the purpose of sustaining the interest of the reader during the progression of the story, and on its revelations at the end, transports the reader to a higher level of understanding. Hence, the completion of the reader’s gradually deepening interest is the most important element of a short story.