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Introduction
Short stories refer to academic works, basically in narrative formats, but written in prose. These are stories that are characterized by a single plot, setting, and few characters and usually have a shorter duration of time span. Just like other normal literature works, short stories climax, crisis and their starting and ending are usually sudden. These stories usually fall under wide range of styles as well as genres. For example they can be science fiction stories, parables, romance stories, myths apologue among other genres.
Discussion
There are various reasons behind which people read short stories. These stories are read to inspire, educate, enlighten or even to entertain people. Short stories in the genre of fiction are primarily read for the reason of enjoyment. A story is pleasurable if it entertains readers, or it makes them enjoy during the reading process. Badman 2008 outlined several pleasures of reading a short story. A reader derives pleasure from reading a short story which has an aspect of suspense.
Readers’ quest to want to know” what happens next,” gives them a lot of pleasure. Humor is another aspect of pleasure derived from reading a short story. People read stories to laugh grin or chuckle. The aesthetic value, i.e. beauty in a short story, contributes to people’s pleasure in their reading. The beauty can be brought about by factors such as thematic relevance, an interesting form or even the reader’s perception on the literature works of a story, or a specific genre.
Several forces are involved in influencing or affecting the pleasures readers gain from reading short stories. The gender status of a reader is one of the factors. Linda Leith claimed that she derived her pleasure in reading short stories edited particularly by male authors who have died, particularly the “A&P” short story by John Updike. She comments that it’s a bittersweet joy in re-reading John Updike’s short stories (Leith 2009). Other readers will gain their pleasure from reading stories which magnify the positive side of their gender, and those stories which do not reveal their negativities.
The theme of the stories themselves also influences the pleasure of reading a short story. For instance the short stories authored by Henry James, portraying, critiquing and perpetuating ideologies based on gender among the bourgeois, have had great impacts in influencing pleasure among women readers. Pamela 2004 noted that Readers enjoyed Donatella Izzo’s study works of short fiction stories of James, particularly on gender and representation. Izzo has excellently examined the representation of women, as well as representational issues in Jame’s fictional women, particularly in the review of “Portraying the lady: Technologies of gender in the short stories of Henry James.” (Pamela 2004, p.199).
The pleasure of reading Jame’s stories comes particularly from his self-same idea and his idiosyncrasies style. Female readers were much exhilarated by James’ stand on representation of women in the society, a factor which definitely impacted positively on the feminine gender in terms of appreciating and gaining pleasure from his works.
According to Zsofia 2007, the gender issue played a major role in rehabilitating James’ reputation in 1980’s and 90’s. His stories on gender issues impacted positively on the readers of his works, which consequently contributed to the rise of his literature.
Zsofia 2007 noted that lovers of James’ literature works, particularly women have enjoyed his gender based stories, and their pleasures for reading the stories have been influenced positively, since his redemption in the 1990’s, even up to date. Henke also backed Zsofia’s observations towards the scholarly works of James and confirmed that the discussion of gender issue was among the primary reasons for continued enjoyment of reading his stories among readers. James gender identity and his reception in terms of gender orientation have influenced other short story writers such as Tobin.
The gender status of a writer or author affects the pleasures readers derive from reading a short story. Many readers build their attitudes in regard to authors of particular stories. This automatically affects reader’s degree of satisfaction or gaining pleasure from reading such stories. Duplessis 2007 maintained that female writers are overlooked, as the society generally thinks that they only write about feminism liberation.
Even some women dislike the fact that they are women writers and try to dissociate themselves from other writers, a factor which contributes to declination of readers’ pleasure in reading short stories authored by women. She however noted that the society seems to be inclined on supporting the side of males in the writing arena; a factor which has even been impacted on the readers.
Male readers tend to enjoy stories written by male author, contrary to majority female readers who despises their gender counterparts’ written works (Duplessis 2007). Duplessis also noted that some readers reports indicated that stories whose agenda was on feminism received an unwelcoming attitude among male readers, and no matter how exciting the stories were, the male readers never enjoyed the stories much as females did.
The “Rip Van Winkle” is another short story which magnifies the power of women over lazy men. The female contributors (readers) enjoyed the fact that women could henpeck and have power over their husbands. Women contributors such as Dana and Katrice thought that men stereotyped women in Washington’s Rip Van Winkle. Their point of argument was that Rip’s wife was painted a negative picture because the author of the story was a male, and that his writing was from the male perspective.
The females defended their nagging colleague on the basis of her lazy husband (Jackson 2002). It’s evident from the Rip Van Winkle story that the theme of the story greatly influences the reading pleasure of a particular gender. Women tend to enjoy stories that glorify women, and men on the contrary appreciate stories which signify positivity of their gender, as in the case of Washington’s short story “Rip Van Winkle.”
Conclusion
Gender plays a major role in influencing the pleasure individuals get from reading short stories. Women tend to enjoy more stories which magnify men weaknesses, or glorifies feminism, and vise versa. Genres or the category under which a certain story falls under, also impacts on gender variance in terms of enjoying reading short stories. Short stories by Henry James on the theme of gender have had a significant influence on readers’ pleasures, as well as building his reputation as one among the lovers of short stories based on the issue of gender. It’s therefore evident that the gender status of the author, readers, gender issues in the written works and other themes in stories greatly influences the pleasures readers gain, positively or negatively.
References
Badman DA, 2008, Panels & Pictures: The Pleasures of the Comics. Web.
Duplessis BR 2007, “Quodlibet: Or, the Pleasures of Engagement Contemporary Women’s Writing,” Vol.1, no.1, pp. 4-13.
Henke, R 1995. “The Man of Action: Henry James and the Performance of Gender.” The Henry James Review 16, pp. 227-241.
Jackson C, 2002, Washington Irving, ENGL 571. Web.
Leith L, 2009, The pleasures of reading, and the death of John Updike. Web.
Pamela MR 2004, “Portraying the Lady: Technologies of Gender in the Short Stories of Henry James (review)” American Literature Journal Spring 2004, Vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 198-200.
Zsofia A 2007. “Recanonizing Henry James: Colm Tobin the Master,” Americana Spring 2007, Vol. 3, no.1.
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