The Problem of the Genre Distinction in Short Prose

Abstract

The article takes a critical stance towards the Anglo-American use of the term short story as a collective term fort the entire domain of short prose. Partially based on German literary criticism, which makes a clear distinction between the novella and the short story, it attempts to demonstrate that within the realm covered by the American term of short story, there are at least two, perhaps even three, genres with differing formal structures, organization of narrative, ideological basis, and pragmatic motivation.