Flash fiction
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Flash fictionis a brief fictional narrative[1]that still offers character and plot development. Identified varieties, many of them defined byword count,include thesix-word story;[2]the 280-character story (also known as "twitterature");[3]the "dribble" (also known as the "minisaga",50 words);[2]the "drabble"(also known as" microfiction ", 100 words);[2]"sudden fiction" (750 words);[4]"flash fiction" (1,000 words); and "microstory".[5]
Some commentators have suggested that flash fiction possesses a unique literary quality in its ability to hint at or imply a larger story.[6]
History[edit]
Flash fiction has roots going back to prehistory, recorded at origin of writing, includingfablesandparables,notablyAesop's Fablesin the west, andPanchatantraandJataka talesin India. Later examples include the tales ofNasreddin,andZenkoanssuch asThe Gateless Gate.
In the United States, early forms of flash fiction can be found in the 19th century, notably in the figures ofWalt Whitman,Ambrose Bierce,andKate Chopin.[7]
In the 1920s flash fiction was referred to as the "short short story" and was associated withCosmopolitanmagazine; and in the 1930s, collected in anthologies such asThe American Short Short Story.[8]
Somerset Maughamwas a notable proponent, with hisCosmopolitans: Very Short Stories(1936) being an early collection.
In Japan, flash fiction was popularized in the post-war period particularly by Michio Tsuzuki(Đều trúc nói phu).
In 1986 Jerome Stern at the Florida State University organized the World's Best Short-Short Story Contest for stories of less than 250 words.Michael Martone,the first winner, received $100 and a crate of Florida oranges as the prize.[9]TheSoutheast Reviewcontinues the contest but has increased the maximum to 500 words.[10]In 1996 Stern publishedMicro Fiction: an anthology of really short storiesdrawn, in part, from the contest.[11]
It was not until 1992, however, that the term "flash fiction" came into use as a category/genre of fiction.[12][13]It was coined by James Thomas,[14]who together with Denise Thomas and Tom Hazuka edited the 1992 landmark anthology titledFlash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories,[15]and was introduced by Thomas in his Introduction to that volume.[16][17]Since then the term has gained wide acceptance as a form, especially in the W. W. Norton Anthologies co-edited by Thomas:Flash Fiction America(W.W. Norton & Co., 2023),Flash Fiction International(W.W. Norton & Co., 2015),Flash Fiction Forward(W.W. Norton & Co., 2006), andFlash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories(W.W. Norton & Co., 1992).
In 2020 theHarry Ransom Centerat theUniversity of Texas at Austinestablished the first curated collection of flash fiction artifacts in the United States.[18]
Authors[edit]
Practitioners have includedSaadiof Shiraz ( "Gulistan of Sa'di"),Bolesław Prus,[5][19]Anton Chekhov,O. Henry,Franz Kafka,H.P. Lovecraft,Yasunari Kawabata,Ernest Hemingway,Julio Cortázar,Daniil Kharms,[20]Arthur C. Clarke,Richard Brautigan,Ray Bradbury,Kurt Vonnegut Jr.,Fredric Brown,John Cage,Philip K. DickandRobert Sheckley.[21]
Hemingway also wrote 18 pieces of flash fiction that were included in his first short-story collection,In Our Time(1925). It is disputed whether (to win a bet), as alleged, he also wrote the flash fiction "For Sale, Baby Shoes, Never Worn".[22]
Also notable are the 62 "short-shorts" which compriseSeverance,the thematic collection byRobert Olen Butlerin which each story describes the remaining 90 seconds of conscious awareness within human heads which have been decapitated.[23]
Contemporary English-speaking writers well known for their published flash fiction include Kathy Fish,Venita Blackburn,Amber Sparks,Lydia Davis,David Gaffney,Robert Scotellaro,andNancy Stohlman,Sherrie Flick,Bruce Holland Rogers,Steve Almond,Barbara Henning,Grant Faulkner.
Spanish-speaking literature has many authors of microstories, includingAugusto Monterroso( "El Dinosaurio") andLuis Felipe Lomelí( "El Emigrante"). Their microstories are some of the shortest ever written in that language. In Spain, authors ofmicrorrelatos(very short fictions) have includedAndrés Neuman,Ramón Gómez de la Serna,José Jiménez Lozano,Javier Tomeo,José María Merino,Juan José Millás,andÓscar Esquivias.[24]In his collectionLa mitad del diablo(Páginas de Espuma, 2006),Juan Pedro Aparicioincluded the one-word storyLuis XIV,which in its entirety reads: "Yo" ( "I" ). In Argentina, notable contemporary contributors to the genre have includedMarco Denevi,Luisa Valenzuela,andAna María Shua.
The Italian writerItalo Calvinoconsciously searched for a short narrative form, drawing inspiration from Argentine writersJorge Luis BorgesandAdolfo Bioy Casaresand finding that Monterroso's was "the most perfect he could find"; "El dinosaurio", in turn, possibly inspired his "The Dinosaurs".[25]
German-language authors ofKürzestgeschichten,influenced by brief narratives penned byBertolt BrechtandFranz Kafka,have includedPeter Bichsel,Heimito von Doderer,Günter Kunert,andHelmut Heißenbüttel.
TheArabic-speaking world has produced a number of microstory authors, including theNobel Prize-winning Egyptian authorNaguib Mahfouz,whose bookEchoes of an Autobiographyis composed mainly of such stories. Other flash fiction writers in Arabic includeZakaria Tamer,Haidar Haidar,andLaila al-Othman.
In the Russian-speaking world the best known flash fiction author isLinor Goralik.[citation needed]
In the southwesternIndian stateofKeralaP. K. Parakkadavuis known for his many microstories in theMalayalam language.[26]
Hungarian writerIstván Örkényis known (beside other works) for hisOne-Minute Stories.[27]
Print journals[edit]
A number of print journals dedicate themselves to flash fiction. These includeFlash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine.[28]
Online journals[edit]
Access to the Internet has enhanced an awareness of flash fiction, with online journals being devoted entirely to the style.SmokeLong Quarterly,founded by Dave Clapper in 2003, is "dedicated to bringing the best flash fiction to the web... whether written by widely published authors or those new to the craft."[29]Other online flash fiction journals includeFlash Me Magazine(founded in 2003),Every Day Fiction(founded in 2007),Flash Fiction Online(founded in 2007),wigleaf(founded in 2008) andFlash Fiction Magazine(founded in 2014), not to mention The Webby Award recognizedDribble Drabble Review,founded and edited by Keith Hoerner, MFA.[30]
In a CNN article on the subject, the author remarked that the "democratization of communication offered by the Internet has made positive in-roads" in the specific area of flash fiction, and directly influenced the style's popularity.[31]The form is popular, with most online literary journals now publishing flash fiction.
In the summer of 2017,The New Yorkerbegan running a series of flash fiction stories online every summer.[32]
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^Catherine Sustana."What Is Flash Fiction?".About Entertainment.Archived fromthe originalon 2016-11-23.Retrieved2016-09-06.
- ^abcGraham (March 8, 2013)."Flash fiction - all you ever wanted to know, but were afraid to ask..."The Bridport Prize.Archived fromthe originalon January 2, 2020.RetrievedSeptember 6,2016.
- ^Maddie Crum (May 7, 2015)."Twitter Fiction Reveals The Power Of Very, Very Short Stories".The Huffington Post.
- ^Becky Tuch."Flash Fiction: What's It All About?".The Review Review.Archived fromthe originalon 2019-02-16.Retrieved2016-09-06.
- ^abChristopher Kasparek,"Two Micro-Stories byBolesław Prus",The Polish Review,1995, no. 1, pp. 99-103.
- ^Swartwood, Robert, "Hint Fiction", (New York: W.W. Norton, 2011)
- ^Roth, Forrest Stephen (2013).Specimen Fiction: The 19th Century Tradition of the American Short-Short Story Critical Essay with Creative Work(Ph.D.). University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
- ^"The American Short Short Story - Google Books".1933.Retrieved2015-09-27.
- ^Pate, Nancy (1987-05-10)."Every word counts in writing contest".Orlando Sentinel.Retrieved2024-04-08.
- ^"Art & Writing Contests".Southeast Review.RetrievedApril 8,2024.
- ^Stevens, David (Spring 1998)."Micro Fiction: An Anthology of Really Short Stories by Jerome Stern".Harvard Review(14): 182–184.JSTOR27561093.RetrievedApril 8,2024.
- ^"Do it in a Flash: An Essay on the History and Definition of Flash Fiction - TSS Publishing".2018.Retrieved2023-01-31.
- ^"Flash Fiction Definition and History - ThoughtCo".2021.Retrieved2023-01-31.
- ^Robert Shapard (2012)."The Remarkable Reinvention of Very Short Fiction".World Literature Today.86(5): 46–49.doi:10.7588/worllitetoda.86.5.0046.JSTOR10.7588/worllitetoda.86.5.0046.S2CID163747936.Retrieved2023-01-31.
- ^Masih, Tara L., ed. (2009).The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction.Rose Metal Press. p. xxxvi.
- ^"What is Flash Fiction?: Robert Shapard & James Thomas - Flash Fiction".2013.Retrieved2023-01-31.
- ^"Flexible Borders".SmokeLong Quarterly.2016.Retrieved2023-01-31.
- ^Allen, Christopher (April 27, 2020)."America's First Curated Collection of Flash Fiction Artifacts".SmokeLong Quarterly.
- ^Zygmunt Szweykowski,Twórczość Bolesława Prusa,p. 99.
- ^Branislav Jakovljevic,Daniil Kharms: Writing and the Event(Northwestern UP, 2009), p. 6
- ^"Flash fiction: 'Intense, urgent and a little explosive'".Irishtimes. 2011-10-26.Retrieved2015-09-27.
- ^"Ernest Hemingway - Baby Shoes".snopes. 29 October 2008.Retrieved2015-09-27.
- ^"Dead Heads".The New York Times.Retrieved2015-09-27.
- ^Valls, Fernando (2012).Mar de pirañas.Menoscuarto.ISBN978-8496675896.Retrieved19 November2012.
- ^Weiss, Beno (1993).Italo Calvino.U of South Carolina P. p.103.ISBN9780872498587.Retrieved9 November2012.
- ^Parakkadavu, PK (2013).Through the Mini-Looking Glass.Translated by VK Sreelesh. Kozhikode: Lead Books.
- ^One Minute Stories(HLO.hu)
- ^Bente Lucht (November 17, 2014)."Flash Fiction: Literary fast food or a metamodern (sub)genre with potential?".Human And Social Sciences at the Common Conference.Archived fromthe originalon November 11, 2022.RetrievedSeptember 6,2016.
- ^Hart, Melissa (March 2016). "Smoke Break: Guest Editors Choose Flash Fiction for Online Mag".The Writer.
- ^Pratt, Mary K. (2009-05-05)."How Technology Is Changing What We Read".PCWorld. Archived fromthe originalon 2011-07-01.Retrieved2015-09-27.
- ^"Six of the best: CNN readers tell us their stories".Cnn. 2008-08-18.Retrieved2010-05-02.
- ^"Flash Fiction A series of very short stories for the summer".The New Yorker.
Bibliography[edit]
- Christopher Kasparek,"Two Micro-Stories byBolesław Prus",The Polish Review,1995, no. 1, pp. 99–103.
- Zygmunt Szweykowski,Twórczość Bolesława Prusa(The Art ofBolesław Prus), 2nd ed., Warsaw,Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy,1972.
External links[edit]
The dictionary definition offlash fictionat Wiktionary
