Origin and Development of Short Story

 Origin and Development of Short Story

Introduction:

The short story is a form of literature which has come to us from ancient times. It has its roots in the instinct of curiosity in man. In the beginning, the stories were told primarily by the method of narration, but with the invention of the printing press, the mode of the story writing spread widely. A number of stories, belonging to both the Western and the Eastern countries, are now found in collections as Aesops Fables, The Buddhist Jatakas, Arabian Nights, The Panchatantra and The Hitopadesha. The short story, often regarded as a younger sister of the novel. The short story has remained very popular form through Television and Radio.

Origin and Development of Short Story:

Story - telling is an ancient art. It is as old as language itself. Oral and written stories were found in the ancient times. Everyone is born with an instinctive desire to be entertained by fiction. The primitive people might have created small stories about animals, birds and plants around them. Later on, in the old days the stories were told to teach moral lessons. The great moral teachers like Buddha and Christ realized that they could convey their great moral teaching through parables or fables. As far as short story in European tradition is concerned the Greeks and the Romans were the first to tell stories in verse. In the Middle Ages some very interesting stories from Italy and France were spread in Europe. The Chief among them was a collection of stories by Boccacio. In the Elizabethan period most of the fables and stories like The Celtic fairy Tales came from Italy and other countries. In the seventeenth century, the rise of magazines, the founding of a periodicals and newspapers provided the opportunity for writing short stories. In the nineteenth century, short story as a literary form became popular.

The short story is relatively a new literary fictional prose form. Modern short story has a brief history of 150 years only. The American writer, Edgar Allen Poe is regarded as the father of Modern short story. The publication of his story MS Found in a Battle is considered to be the first modern, proper short story. His stories are known for his skill of narration and local colour. His technique was different from the earlier short story writers. The French and Russian masters also helped in the development of the short story. They introduced naturalism in the short story aiming at the detail presentation of life in all its realism.

In the beginning of twentieth Century the writers such as, H.G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, etc. enriched the story. The very well-known European masters of short story in different countries are: Guy de Maupassant and Balzac (France), Anton Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy (Russian), Sir Walter Scott and Mrs. Gaskel (England). Indian writers such as Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, R. K. Narayan etc. have also written short stories in English. It seems that the extreme mechanization of life due to heavy industrialization is the root cause of the birth of the modern short story. Readers have no leisure to read longer novels and to witness longer dramas at a stretch in the modern times. Naturally, they depend on modern genre of short story to satisfy their love of the creative arts in one sitting of 15 to 20 minutes. The fragmentariness of the short story suits to the fast life.