Homelessness

doi:10.1017/9781009292863.025

Chapter 19 - Homelessness

The Short Story and Other Media

from Part IV - Theories

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 May 2023

Gavin Jones

Edited by

Michael J. Collins and

Gavin Jones

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Michael J. Collins: Affiliation:
King's College London
Gavin Jones: Affiliation:
Stanford University

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Summary

Less dependent than the novel on the containing medium of the book (codex), the short story has an inherent power to move between different media – the magazine, the spoken word, the anthology, the story cycle, etc. This chapter examines how this transmedial power has impacted the form and content of the short story from the early nineteenth century to the present day. In particular, we examine the impact on the short story of the magazine; the creative writing program; the technology of photography; the spoken voice; and the audio tape. We see how transmediation informs themes such as literary commercialization and craft, and techniques such as realism and metafiction. The authors discussed include Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, O. Henry, Ernest Hemingway, Nam Le, Jennifer Egan, Eudora Welty, Charles Chesnutt, Ted Chiang, John Barth, Elizabeth Tallent, and Jenn Alandy Trahan.

Keywords

media mobility transmediation photography metafiction realism orality performance

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Companion to the American Short Story , pp. 298 - 312

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009292863.025 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2023

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