American Literary periods form
Many American short stories from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries can clearly be said to follow a strictly defined scheme or formula in which a dramatic and memorable effect was produced within the confines of brevity whilst including a clear exposition, crisis and resolution. ... Edgar Allan Poe, together with his contemporaries Washington Irving and Nathaniel Hawthorne, will be best remembered for their search for the ideal form or formula for a short story. Some critics, such as Henry James, even claim that they were the inventors of the American short story genre. ... More modern writers however, in their quest for individual style, and to reflect historical changes, have broken traditional literary boundaries in their search for the identity and support of their gender, race, generation or political beliefs. ’A White Heron’ illustrates how a writer who is poised between 19th century and 20th century values is able to work within the form advocated earlier in the 19th century. ’The Petrified Man’ and ’Neigbor Rosicky’ on the otherhand do not necessarily complicate this definition – in fact, we might agree that they challenge and re-define the formula of the American short story, to meet the needs of new audiences.