Skip to content
1981
The Health of the Short Story: Part 1
  • ISSN: 2043-0701
  • E-ISSN: 2043-071X

Abstract

Traditionally, the short story has been understood as almost synonymous with loneliness, characterized by theorists and writers like Frank O’Connor as the quintessential ‘lonely form’. Contemporary short story writer Diane Williams stands out for her idiosyncratic challenge to the conventions of short story structure, drawing deliberately on the partiality and contingency of the anecdote. Analysing the structure and style of Williams’s 2016 collection , this article explores how a turn to anecdotal structures might shift the short story form’s traditional polarity towards loneliness – a particularly urgent question in an increasingly lonely culture.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/fict_00046_1
2022-04-01
2026-03-17
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Baldwin, James. ( 1965), Going to Meet the Man, New York:: Dial;.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Barekat, Houman. ( 2016;), ‘ Terse and trying tales. ’, The Irish Times, 5 November, https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/fine-fine-fine-fine-fine-review-terse-and-trying-tales-1.2838704. Accessed 10 February 2022.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Brdjanovic, Ena. ( 2016;), ‘ Vis-à-vis the mysteries of daily life. ’, Los Angeles Review of Books, 1 April, https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/vis-a-vis-the-mysteries-of-daily-life-on-diane-williamss-fine-fine-fine-fine-fine/. Accessed 10 February 2022.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Cacioppo, John T.,, Fowler, James H., and Christakis, Nicholas Alexander. ( 2009;), ‘ Alone in the crowd: The structure and spread of loneliness in a large social network. ’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97:6, pp. 97791.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Ciuraru, Carmela. ( 2016;), ‘ Diane Williams is at her unconventional best. ’, Los Angeles Times, 21 January, https://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc-0124-fine-fine-fine-20160124-story.html. Accessed 10 February 2022.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Deleuze, Gilles, and Guattari, Félix. ( 1986), Kafka Toward a Minor Literature (trans. D. Polan.), Minneapolis, MN:: Minnesota University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Ferguson, Robert A.. ( 2013), Alone in America: The Stories that Matter, Cambridge, MA:: Harvard University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Fleming, Paul. ( 2011;), ‘ The perfect story: Anecdote and exemplarity in Linnaeus and Blumenberg. ’, Thesis Eleven, 104:1, pp. 7286.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Gossman, Lionel. ( 2003;), ‘ Anecdote and history. ’, History and Theory, 42:2, pp. 14368.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Mansfield, Katherine. ( 2007), The Collected Stories, London:: Penguin;.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. May, Charles E.. ( 1976), Short Story Theories, Athens, OH:: Ohio University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Morrison, Philip S., and Smith, Rebekah. ( 2018;), ‘ Loneliness: An overview. ’, in O. Sagan, and E. Miller. (eds), Narratives of Loneliness: Multidisciplinary Perspectives from the 21st Century, London and New York: Routledge;, pp. 1125.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Nunn, Robin. ( 2011;), ‘ Mere anecdote: Evidence and stories in medicine. ’, Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 17:5, pp. 92026.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. O’Connor, Frank. ( 1962), The Lonely Voice: A Study of the Short Story Form, New York:: World Publishing Company;.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Poole, Steven. ( 2016;), ‘ Misunderstandings in miniature. ’, The Guardian, 21 October, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/oct/21/fine-fine-diane-williams-review. Accessed 10 February 2022.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Pratt, Mary Louise. ( 1981;), ‘ The short story: The long and the short of it. ’, Poetics, 10:2&3, pp. 17594.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Sedlmeier, Florian, and Snyder-Körber, MaryAnn. ( 2020;), ‘ Introduction. ’, in J. Dorson,, F. Sedlmeier,, M. Snyder-Börber, and B. Wege. (eds), Anecdotal Modernity: Making and Unmaking History, Berlin:: De Gruyter;, pp. 130.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Stefanovska, Malina. ( 2009;), ‘ Exemplary or singular? The anecdote in historical narrative. ’, SubStance, 38:1, pp. 1630.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Syme, Rachel. ( 2016;), ‘ Short stories. ’, New York Times, 15 January, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/17/books/review/short-stories.html. Accessed 29 June 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Williams, Diane. ( 2016), Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, San Francisco, CA:: McSweeney’s;.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Woodard, Benjamin. ( 2016;), ‘ Have I come clean enough. ’, Kenyon Review, https://kenyonreview.org/reviews/fine-fine-fine-fine-fine-by-diane-williams-738439/#. Accessed 29 June 2021.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Reese, Sam. ( 2022;), ‘ Only anecdotal: Diane Williams, loneliness and short story form. ’, Short Fiction in Theory & Practice, 12:1, pp. 1930, https://doi.org/10.1386/fict_00046_1
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/fict_00046_1
Loading
  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): American literature; anecdote; exemplar; flash fiction; isolation; short story
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test