American short story of the XXI Century

Abstract

The article deals with the American short story, which by virtue of its metaphoric nature, ability to produce immediate effect reflects the national mentality, captures both the momentary and deeper perception of contemporary reality. The background and basis of contemporary small prose is the philosophy and aesthetics of postmodernism: the idea of the prevailing chaos, the departure from external reality to explore the inner world of man, fragmented, skilful stream of consciousness, intertextuality, an element of play. The character is often an asocial or even marginal personality, most often the hero has no background and sometimes no name. We see either rejected by society, suffering individuals, or characters obsessed with phobias and painful tendencies. This sometimes creates a gloomy atmosphere of cruelty, insensitivity and loneliness. Modern storytelling characterizes the duality of the finale, the need for speculation, the possibility of ambiguity; the reader is attracted to the co-authorship. There is a variety of stylistic searches of modern prose writers. With some blurring of genre boundaries, the following subtypes stand out: narrative parable / myth / story; encrypted story; story miniature; fairy tale poem; pseudo-documentary story. In spite of the obvious continuity, fundamentally new trends are observed in XXI century novel writing. These are rethinking/reconstructing subjectivity, „new sincerity”, rejection of „black humor” and „tyranny” of irony, emphasis on empathy and soft humor. Whereas in the small prose of the second half of the 20th century there reigned reflection, doubts, and bitter caustic irony, in the new reality the main thing is the acquisition of humanity and the attempt to find logic in the distorted. For the heroes of modern novel writing, „we” are more important than „I”. If one hears the author’s voice in a narrative, then it is not a neutral or ironic observer, but a sincere, sympathetic, even naive commentator.