Columns:: Lit prof takes novel look at short story

since 12/15/98

Columns::August 20, 2001

Weekly Reader

Lit prof takes novel look at short story

photo of The Comtemporary American Short-Story Cycle

49.95
Louisiana State University Press

The short-story cycle has rapidly ascended over the past 20 years to become one of the dominant forms in American fiction, according to James Nagel, the J.O. Eidson Distinguished Professor of American Literature at UGA. Most scholars and book reviewers, however, lack awareness of the short story’s rich legacy and consistently misconstrue new works of the genre as “novels.”
In The Contemporary American Short-Story Cycle, Nagel offers the first systematic history and definition of the story cycle as exemplified in contemporary American fiction, bringing attention to the format’s wide appeal among various ethnic groups. He examines in detail eight recent manifestations of the short-story cycle genre, all praised by critics while uniformly misidentified as novels. Written from a variety of ethnic perspectives, the books utilize a common literary tradition to depict the process of immigration, acculturation, language acquisition, assimilation, identity formation and integration of old world values with new.
Nagel proposes that the short-story cycle lends itself particularly well to exploring these themes, which mirror some of the major issues facing American society today.

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