Global in scope, this volume uncovers the deep history of the short story as an "impure" genre by challenging the commonplace understanding in contemporary literary studies that the short story is primarily a product of Western modernity.
Genres do not have rigid, timeless, once-and-for-all definitions, and the short story is no exception. Short Story as World Literature invites the reader to reflect on the historical becoming of this impure genre, analyzing various forms of the short story throughout its deep history. It also challenges established ideas about the genre that limit its history to the prose form practiced by Edgar Allan Poe and canonized in Western Europe following Charles Baudelaire's influential translation.
The story of the short story presented here goes into a much deeper history throughout time and space: its earliest forms include dreams and visions in ancient religious texts, parables, poems, maxims, but also more recently poem-objects and films. The authors examine how the short story evolves, sometimes almost beyond recognition, across different forms of art, genres, and media, as well as through translation and circulation - with effects on institutions, educational politics, and the construction of a moral system of values.
An international team of established and emerging scholars in the fields of comparative and world literature - including David Damrosch, Paulo Horta, Dominique Jullien, and Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, as well as Maria Dabija, Sophus Helle, and Michael Makarovsky - untangle this complex and complicated (hi)story.
| ISBN: | 9798765126738 |
| Publication date: | 5th February 2026 |
| Author: | Delia Ungureanu, Amândio Reis |
| Publisher: | Bloomsbury Academic an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing (UK) |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 288 pages |
| Series: | Literatures as World Literature |
| Genres: |
Comparative literature Shorter Reads Literary theory |
Global in scope, this volume uncovers the deep history of the short story as an "impure" genre by challenging the commonplace understanding in contemporary literary studies that the short story is primarily a product of Western modernity.
Genres do not have rigid, timeless, once-and-for-all definitions, and the short story is no exception. Short Story as World Literature invites the reader to reflect on the historical becoming of this impure genre, analyzing various forms of the short story throughout its deep history. It also challenges established ideas about the genre that limit its history to the prose form practiced by Edgar Allan Poe and canonized in Western Europe following Charles Baudelaire's influential translation.
The story of the short story presented here goes into a much deeper history throughout time and space: its earliest forms include dreams and visions in ancient religious texts, parables, poems, maxims, but also more recently poem-objects and films. The authors examine how the short story evolves, sometimes almost beyond recognition, across different forms of art, genres, and media, as well as through translation and circulation - with effects on institutions, educational politics, and the construction of a moral system of values.
An international team of established and emerging scholars in the fields of comparative and world literature - including David Damrosch, Paulo Horta, Dominique Jullien, and Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, as well as Maria Dabija, Sophus Helle, and Michael Makarovsky - untangle this complex and complicated (hi)story.
Short Story as World Literature features in the following genres: Comparative literature, Shorter Reads, Literary theory
Short Story as World Literature is available in Hardback
Short Story as World Literature was written by Delia Ungureanu, Amândio Reis and published by Bloomsbury Academic an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)
Short Story as World Literature has 288 pages
Yes it is part of Literatures as World Literature series
£81.00