Short Story

The novela (short story) is a small epic genre with a sharp, often unexpected plot, a compressed composition, and an expressive concluding pointe that suddenly overturns the meaning of the whole work. The name comes from the Italian novella — a piece of news; classic models of the genre were given by Giovanni Boccaccio in the Decameron. The short story concentrates on a single event, a single conflict, and a limited circle of characters; tension of action and economy of means are essential to it. Masters of the short story in world literature were Prosper Mérimée, Guy de Maupassant, O. Henry, and Edgar Allan Poe. The Ukrainian short story reached a European level in the work of Vasyl Stefanyk (The News, The Stone Cross), Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky, Marko Cheremshyna, Hryhir Tiutiunnyk, and in the impressionist short prose of Mykola Khvylovy.