Minimalism in Contemporary Short Fiction
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The purpose of this research is to examine the literary style of minimalism in contemporary short fiction. The plan of the research will be to set forth the origins and characteristics of minimalistic literature as a response to previous modes of literary style, and then to discuss the principal practitioners of narrative minimalism. In particular, reference will be made to the style, themes, plot development, and symbology contained in various short works of Ann Beattie, who is viewed as perhaps the foremost minimalist author. As appropriate, comparisons of Beattie's work will be made to the work of other minimalistic writers, with a view toward offering an assessment of the position and strength of the movement. The literary style known as minimalism attained currency from 1970 onward, and has been both lauded and attacked as a response to the postmodernism that emerged in the years following World War II. Murphy describes it as the response to postmodernism, inasmuch as it follows, in linear time, a literary movement that had been widely regarded as modernist in its own response to nineteenth century late Romantic or Victorian narrative conventions (Murphy 12). The composition of the minimalist response is a matter that has engaged a number of critics. As Martin Esslin remarks in his discussion of the roots of the once controversial theatre of the absurd, "Avant garde movements are hardly ever entirely novel and unprecedented. The Theatre of the Absurd is a retu
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e of him?"
Dinah always called Arthur so; she had never lost the
image of him as she had seen him in prison (Eliot 474 5).
The reality that Beattie renders for Nick, Karen, and Petra is one that is not merely less congenial than that rendered by Eliot for Adam and Dinah. Nor is the difference between them merely the difference between Victorian courtesy and contemporary bad manners. Whereas Eliot the decorous, thoughtful narrator qualifies the setting, the character descriptions, the inmost emotional claims of the characters with metaphor and has a word to say about everything, Beattie the minimalist narrator simply illustrates, without comment, the thoughtless declaration of conflicting claims. Moreover, she portrays characters who are determined not to show emotion; this is consistent with Barth's description of the "nonemotive tone" as typical of the minimalist form.
If the contrast between Beattie and Eliot is strong, it is only slightly less strong than the contrast between Beattie the minimalist and Faulkner the modernist. In The Sound and the Fury, which is frequently frenetic with the emotional clash of Jason IV and almost everybody else Quentin, Benjy, the girl Quentin, and Caddy closes with a
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 7031
Approximate Pages = 28 (250 words per page)
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