Short story anthologies ( see bibliography) are more canonical in that they promote established names and steer the definition of the genre short story through there prefaces and introductory essays.
In the present 10 page paper you are asked to research three topics:
1. What do composers of anthologies say about the genre short story?
Do they write a short history? Do they explain innate characteristics of short fiction? What can you read between the lines about the nature of short fiction apart from the fact that it is short?
2. What do composer of anthologies write about the selection mechanism?
i.e. why did they pick certain authors and why did they left others out? That is if they are explicit about their choice? Are the Prefaces and Introductions conscious about the CANON. Do they comment on it. Why take up certain writers? Why leave others out?
3. Which are the recurring names in the three anthologies? Are the names and the stories spread out in a politically correct way: white? Afro American? Hispanic? Native American etc.
ONE CITATION AT LEAST/PAGE !!!!!
Anthologies to be consulted and compared.
(1) The Best American Short Stories of the Century – Ed. John Updike, Katrina Kenison, 2000, Houghton Mifflin Company.
(2) The Oxford Book of American Short Stories(2nd Ed) Ed. Joyce Carol Oates, OUP, 2013
(3) The Vintage Book of Contemporary Short Stories, ED. Tobias Wolf, Random House, 1994.
(4) Anthology of the American Short Story. Wadsworth Publishing, Ed. James Nagel, 2007
(5) The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, ED. Richard Bausch and R.V. Cassill, 8th Edition, 2015.
