2008 – Give an account of origin, growth and objectives of short story writing. Examine critically various approaches in this regard.

Introduction:
A short story is a work of fiction, usually written in narrative prose. It depicts minimum number of characters and concentrate on a ‘single effect’ or mood. It encompasses small frame of time. Short stories have been written in almost all the languages of the world.

Origin:
Arabians took the art of writing short story from the Iranians but then so much progress was made that the Arabs became the competitor of Iranians. “Thousand and One Night” is a glorious example in this regard. Another story “Kulia wa Damnta” was taken from Indian literature and translated into Arabic by Inb-e-Mafqah.

Growth:
In 19th century much attention was paid to short story. It developed in Syria under the influence of European nations. From Syria it came into Egypt. Egyptian authors such as Muhammad Husayn Haykal, Mahmoud Taymour, Tawfiq al-Hakim, Yusuf Idris and others influenced the first modern Syrian Arabic short story. Under the influence of European writers as well as with the development of the printing press in the 19th century, Arabic short story “Al Qisas Al Saghrah” first appeared in 1870 in newspapers and magazines.
By the end of 19th century, Egyptian, Lebanese, and Syrian magazines increased the publication of short stories. Predominantly this was the era when the Arabs were impressed from the new ideas so they translated the western work in Arabic.
Arabic short story began as a direct copy of Europeans, particularly of Maupassant, Poe, Chekhov and others through translation and by borrowing the characters and plot of a specific story and giving Arabic names to its characters and setting.
In modern literature first Arabic short story was published by a Mahjar writer Mikhail Naema in 1914.
In the 1960s, the short story achieved a distinguished level of grounding in specific artistic characteristics, including an insistence on being short in length, encompassing a short time frame, having critical and deep details, written in prose language, having a minimal number of characters, and conveying an ambiguous ending which leaves the reader to his own imagination and interpretation.
Now Arabic short story has become universal in character maintaining its distinct and local color.

Objectives:
The importance of short story has grown in recent years because of its ability to throw a concentrated beam of life on a specific target. The objectives of writing short story are as under:

Firstly, the western influence in Arabic Literature was thought to be damaging, as leading to moral and sexual corruption and as destructive of impeccable standards of Arabic and Islam. So Arabic writers paid great attention to Arabic literature, specially short story to make it pure and in accordance of our religion.
Secondly, the spread of Arab Nationalism was another objective of writing short story.

Thirdly, Arab writers now long to give a lead to Arab world. They are not satisfied with their rulers who are unable to solve the problems of Arabic world. They urge an “engaged” literature, one critical of Arab regimes and leaders. Short story has the ability to fulfill this purpose also.

Fourthly, In the modern world, where every one has to run with time, none has as much spare time to read long novels. Short story conveys the message of the writer in lesser words consuming less time.
Fifthly, after 1960 psychological development of readers was done through these stories.

Main Stages:
Largely under the influence of Chekhov and Maupassant, Arabic short story made great head way. It can be classified in three different periods.
1)The Embryonic Stage:
The first is “The Embryonic Stage,” dated from the beginning of the 19th century to 1914; the works of writers of this stage such as Salim Al-Bustani, Labibah Hashim, Khalil Gibran, Mustafa Lutfi al-Manfaluti and others were described as melancholic, and they had adapted Western short story techniques.
2)The Trial Stage:
The second stage, known as “The Trial Stage,” dated from 1914 to 1925, may be called the traditional stage, in which we find clear attempts for authentic voices. Writers of this new genre, such as Muhammad Taymour, Tahir Lashin and others, felt it necessary of studying its techniques in Western literature and approach it in a more unconventional way.
3)The Formative Stage:
“The Formative Stage,” which extends from 1925 to the present, was opened by Mahmoud Taymour, where a new narrative style emerged emphasizing the development and psychological analysis of the characters in the stories with a more realistic approach.

Conclusion:
Today, authors such as Zakaria Tamer, Faris Farzur, Ghada al-Samman, and many others are considered to be some of the most distinguished authors who contributed much to the development of this short story. Through this genre writers are contributing to the psychological development of the modern reader as well as throwing light on the problems faced by man in the modern times.

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