3) El cuento moderno (el iceberg de Hemingway)

Today we're going to talk about short stories that stray from classical Poe-style procedures: in this video, we'll mention Chekhov, Hemingway, and Carver, among others, more than once. As I've clarified a couple of times, I use the term "iceberg tales" very broadly and informally. Piglia is talking about the modern short story. Of course, the notion of modern and classic must be separated from temporality. It's a distinction regarding narrative procedures. Nothing more, nothing less. If you haven't seen the first video in this series, in which we talked about Piglia and his thesis on the short story (a short story tells two stories), I recommend you do so (unless you're already familiar with Ricardo Piglia's text, of course). I'll leave you, however, with a summary of the text: I In one of his notebooks, Chekhov recorded this anecdote: “A man, in Monte Carlo, goes to the casino, wins a million, returns home, and commits suicide.” The classic short story form is condensed in the core of this future, unwritten narrative. Contrary to what is predictable and conventional (playing, losing, committing suicide), the plot is presented as a paradox. The anecdote tends to separate the story of the game from the story of the suicide. This split is key to defining the double nature of the short story form. First thesis: a short story always tells two stories. II The classic short story (Poe, Quiroga) narrates story 1 (the story of the game) in the foreground and secretly constructs story 2 (the story of the suicide). The storyteller's art consists in knowing how to encode story 2 in the interstices of story 1. A visible story hides a secret story, narrated in an elliptical and fragmentary manner. The effect of surprise occurs when the end of the secret story appears on the surface. III Each of the two stories is told in a different way. Working with two stories means working with two different systems of causality. The same events simultaneously enter into two antagonistic narrative logics. The essential elements of the short story have a dual function and are used differently in each of the two stories. The intersections are the foundation of the construction. V The short story is a tale that contains a secret story. This is not a hidden meaning dependent on interpretation: the enigma is nothing other than a story told in an enigmatic way. The strategy of the story is at the service of this coded narrative. How do you tell one story while telling another? This question summarizes the technical problems of the short story. Second thesis: the secret story is the key to the short story's form. VI The modern version of the short story, which comes from Chekhov, Katherine Mansfield, Sherwood Anderson, and Joyce's Dubliners, abandons the surprise ending and the closed structure; it works on the tension between the two stories without ever resolving it. The secret story is told in an increasingly elusive way. The classic Poe-style short story told one story, announcing that there was another; the modern short story tells two stories as if they were one. Hemingway's iceberg theory is the first synthesis of this transformation process: the most important thing is never told. The secret story is constructed from the unspoken, from the implied, and from the allusion. If you'd like to participate in my workshop, send me a message on my social media (I'll leave them at the end of this description). To purchase my books: The Shadow in the Reflection (Argentina, paperback): https://bucanera.empretienda.com.ar/l... The Shadow in the Reflection (digital, worldwide): https://books.google.com.ar/books/abo... The Dream of Love Breeds Monsters: https://www.editorialbarenhaus.com/li... If you'd like me to review your writing in a video:    • ¡Corrijo tus textos!   Facebook:   / tallerliterariolanus   Instagram:   / elsurtallerliterario