Linked Short Story Collections
Defining and Unifying American Short Fiction
What is a story cycle and how is it different from other short story collections? This article attempts to give the basics of this exciting genre.
What is a Linked Short Story Collection?
For as many terms as there are to label this genre, such as composite novels, story clusters, and ring of stories, there are just as many definitions. In The Composite Novel: the Short Story Cycle in Transition, Ann Morris and Maggie Dunn refer to these texts as a “literary work composed of shorter texts that though individually complete and autonomous are interrelated in a coherent whole according to one or more organizing principles” (2).
James Nagel discusses the story cycle in terms of its history in The Contemporary American Short-Story Cycle: The Ethnic Resonance of Genre. He says “the historical meaning of ‘cycle’ is a collection of verse or narratives centering around some outstanding event or character” (1-2). It is clearly the form and structure of the story cycle that stand out most.
The form was made popular by Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg Ohio (1919), James Joyce’s Dubliners (1914), and Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time (1925). Big names in modern American fiction such as Stuart Dybek, Sandra Cisneros, John Barth, and Pam Houston, have also experimented with story cycles, making it almost trendy and definitely marketable.
What Unifies a Story Cycle?
Though there are countless ways an author might choose to unify their collection, the most typically used techniques for unity in a story cycle are setting, character and theme. The connections in these story cycles do not have to be explicit, according to David Jauss in "Stacking Stories: Building a Unified Short Story Collection." He says “a story collection, when it’s really good, is a unified whole, one whose parts cannot be rearranged without doing damage to its unity” (56).
Under this definition, all well-crafted short story collections could be considered a story cycle. Motifs, parallels, and aesthetic quality can all help link a collection of short stories. The stories in collections like Trailerpark by Russell Banks and Anderson’s Winesburg Ohio are joined by one broad reoccurring setting like a city or several small establishments like a bar or school.
Collections that center around one protagonist or several characters (sometimes a family) are also a popular avenue; Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine and David Schickler’s Kissing in Manhattan are just two examples. Themed collections like Jill McCorkle’s Final, Vinyl Days and Flannery O’Connor’s Everything that Rises Must Converge are probably seen most often, relying on the sometimes subtle clues of theme for their connections.
Other Linked Short Stories to Check Out
- Later, at the Bar by Rebecca Barry
- The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
- Georgia Under Water by Heather Sellers (check out the author’s webpage)
- The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
- Lately by Sara Pritchard (check out the author’s webpage)
