The Modernist Short Story

The protagonist from William Faulkner's story
"A Rose for Emily" is high class yet solitary

Short story writers of the Modern era played with structure as much as poets did. Modernist prose writers took the influences of industry, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, and the World Wars; mixed them all together; and shot them out in creative forms that toyed with plot structure and thematic presence. This mixture created pieces using stream of consciousness, antithesis resolutions, and ambiguous themes meant to force a reader to think. Modern psychology and the fast pace of industrialization meant that authors needed to push their words to a higher level of thought while using direct language that spoke to ordinary people about everyday life.

Essential Question

• What are the main characteristics of Modernist short stories?