World Literature - American Literatures

Before America became a nation, all the great history types except one were already in existence. In poetry they were the epic, the lyric, and the drama. In prose there were the drama; biography, the novel and the essay.

The short-story is the one contribution that America has made to the literary family. The novel, the older big brother of the short-story, had taken shape in England during the eighteenth century. About a hundred years later the short-story took shape in America.

Irving was the first important story-writer in America. His stories have an unhurried development as compared with those of Poe and Hawthorne. But  Irving’s power of description and of drawing lifelike characters, together with his great gift of humor, keep his work fresh and attractive. A masterpiece I the field of short fiction is “Rip Van Winkle’.

Poe did three important things in the short-story field: (1) he analysed and defined the short-story as a type; (2) he created the impressionistic story of preconceived totality of effect, like “The Purloined Letter.” His is probably the most influential name in the history of the American short-story. When Poe wrote a story, he aimed everything in it – plot, characters, setting, style – at producing one single emotional effect.