The Short Story (A brief History)

What are often considered to be the 'origins' of the short story?

• Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales'

• The sharing of stories by early humans around fires

• Beatrix Potter's 'Peter Rabbit'

• The Mallorquin Rondalles

Order the following into what is most often considered the standard story structure:

Rising Action

Exposition

Denounement

Climax

Which two texts below form the foundations of 'the literary short story'

• Shakespeare's Plays

• Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales'

• The 'One Thousand and One Nights'

• F Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby'

Edgar Allan Poe famously defined the short story as a text that can be read in one sitting. He also coined the idea of the... in the short story.

• Unity of contemplation

• Unity of disorder

• Unity of effect

• Unity of order

Explain in two sentences Anton Chekhov's contribution to the history of the short story

Which of the following are considered established styles of short story:

• Event-plot Stories

• Chekhovian Stories

• Poetic/Mythic Stories

• The Fitgeraldian Short Story

What increased the popularity of the short story in the mid 19th Century

• The rise of mass literacy

• Advances in printing technology

• Rise of the popularity of radio dramas

• prohibition of books longer that 100 pages