As there are varieties of subjects, themes and art, there are various types of a short story. Some of the types are ancient tales, humor, satire, fantasy, biography, education, local color, and history. Lets us have a glimpse on each one of them in this article.
1. Ancient Tales
It is the power of the utilization of the ancient form of the tale in the modern short story. Italian writer Giovanni Verga’s The She-Wolf (1880), and Chinese writer Yeh Shao-Chun’s Mrs. Li’s Hair are remarkable examples.
2. Fantasy
Fantasy stories are nothing but the fair combination of the old tales tradition and the supernatural details. The fine examples of such stories are British writer John Collier’s horror fantasy Bottle Party (1939), Irish author Elizabeth Bowen’s The Demon Lover (1941), and British author Saki’s Tobermory (1911).
3. Humor
These types of stories are meant for producing surprise and delight. You will see that the most famous humorous tales and fables were written by the Americans. Mark Twain’s The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (1865), and Joel Chandler Harris’s The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story (1894) are remarkable. There is serious humor in the works of Americans like Eudora Welty’s Petrified Man (1939) and Dorothy Parker’s The Custard Heart (1939).
4. Satire
The main purpose of satire is to attack the evils of society. There are writers who wrote stories of sober satire. Austrian author Arthur Schnitzler’s Fate of the Baron (1923), and American Mary McCarthy’s The Man in the Brooks Brothers Shirt (1941) are known for their somber satire.
The Essay on In Sophocles Story Of Oedipus Rex The Author Uses Various
In Sophocles story of Oedipus Rex the author uses various literary elements to expose the main heros personality and create a constant impression of tragic and disastrous setting throughout the whole play. Many contrasts are done through numerous allusions to the light and dark side of each situation to portray the duality of everything that happens and is predestined to happen. This symbolism is ...
5. Education Story
Such stories revolve around the education of the main character. The good example is American educator Lionel Trilling’s Of This Time, of That Place (1944).
6. History
History types deal with a life story or historical event. Welty’s A Still Moment (a 1943 story about naturalist John James Audubon) is fine example of story dealing with history event.
7. Local Color
These types of stories deal with the customs and traditions of rural and small-town life. You can enjoy the local color in the stories of George Washington Cable, Maria Edgeworth, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Mary Wilkins Freeman. These are some of the types you may find in sort story genre. In recent times, stories have more local color, diversities in the representations, making use of dialects, and vernacular impressions. The story writes have been taking somewhat flexibility in writing stories as they wish.
