Academic literature on the topic 'Fiction, short stories (single author)'

L.F. Dostoevskaya’s oeuvre consists of short stories and two novels, together with a biography of F.M. Dostoevsky. Her fiction is perceived by researchers as largely autobiographical; her book about F.M. Dostoevsky as a father is considered the least reliable source of biography. Therefore a mixture of genres can be considered: her prose displays features of the poetics of autobiography; her documentary contains fiction, while the author’s discourse dominates the character of the book. This article discusses some features of the poetics of fiction and the documentary prose of L.F. Dostoevskyaya. Dostoevskaya’s works suggest that the narrator is close to the author, since in some works the narrator is an autobiographical narrator named Lyubov Feodorovna. This article presents elements of a narratological analysis of her oeuvre of novels and short stories; this can help the reader trace the connections between the perspectives of the protagonists and narrators. In some narrative structures, the positions of the protagonists and narrators become equivalent due to the extra-narrative roles of the latter. The article also provides a partial analysis of the main themes and motifs of her prose, indicating their connection to the work of F.M. Dostoevsky. In particular, we discuss the connection between Dostoevskaya’s prose and her father’s unfinished novel ‘Netochka Nezvanova’. Taken as a single text, the prose of the great writer’s daughter demonstrates features of the Bildungsroman.

The article dedicated to the works of the Lithuanian literature written in the second half of the 20th century depicting the writer Žemaitė (pen name of Julija Beniuševičiūtė-Žymantienė, 1845–1921). This writer was not rejected by the Soviet authorities because of her realistic outline and her democratic political views, the social criticism expressed in her work towards greed, selfishness and clericalism. Lithuanian writers dedicated to her their poetry, fiction, and drama works. However, Soviet writers were also impressed by Žemaitė’s personality traits, which mentioned less frequently in public: independence, perseverance, wit, the courage to stand out from her surroundings and to disregard the societal norms that stifled older women in traditional society. The article analyses the features of Žemaitė’s personality in works of Lithuanian literature created by poets Salomėja Nėris, Judita Vaičiūnaitė, and others. The author reveals how different aspects of Žemaitė’s work and personality were emphasised depending on the time of writing. This change partly reflects the shift of literature from socialist realism to more modern literature. Among the works of prose, the author singles out Bitė Vilimaitė’s cycle of short stories “Apsakymai apie Žemaitę” (Short Stories about Žemaitė) from her collection Papartynų saulė (Fernery Sun, 2002). The stories reveal both the character of Žemaitė, her environment and people close to her, and the most important features of Vilimaitė’s own work: attention to a woman’s fate, subtle psychological insight, attention to detail, and a specific model of a short novella. Since the protagonists of the cycle are usually real people, Vilimaitė’s talent for using documentary material and combining it with fiction is also evident here. The article concludes that Soviet-era authors portraying Žemaitė’s character raised aspects relevant to the time of writing, such as the promotion of national culture, problems of women’s emancipation and, also the fact that for female writers, Žemaitė was a role model.

Although fiction in English by non-native authors is one of long standing, there has been in the last two decades a surge in novels and short stories written by individuals whose native language is not English or by bilingual authors whose native command of a language other than English has been used to advantage in furthering the stylistic effect of their works. This paper explores the actual (and potential) contribution of four such writers (two Arab: Ahdaf Soueifand Ibrahim Fawal, and two Indian: Rohinton Mistry and Arundhati Roy) to the English language in terms of words, phrases, idioms and fixed expressions as well as broader elements of tone and emphasis. Extensive reference is also made to other Arab as well as African and Chinese novelists. The paper finds that longer strings are more readily recognizable as additions to English than single words, notwithstanding the legitimacy of many word-additions. It also looks into some practical considerations like the need or otherwise of textual glossing, glossaries as appendices and italicization..

Mongols have a long and rich tradition of translating literary works from many different countries into Mongolian. Specifically, thousands of literary works from over 100 different countries written in dozens of different languages have been translated into Mongolian. Among these, a large number of Italian literary works have been translated into Mongolian from Russian, English, and Romanian. As for the literary genres of these works, they primarily consist of poetry, prose, and plays (including screenplays). Specifically: 1) Poetry: poems (58 works), songs (1), long poems (3); 2) Prose: folktales (33), authored tales (36), short stories (40), traditional jokes (3), novellas (5), framed stories (1), novels (5); 3) Plays (2), and screenplays (1). In addition, works of non-fiction, including stylized biographical sketches, reminiscences, as well as a political philosophical treatise, have been published. Literary works are generally divided into one of the following two different categories depending on whether they have a specific author or not: a) oral folklore; and b) written literature. The following tasks need to be undertaken to properly study Italian literary works which have been translated into Mongolian and published in Mongolia: A complete bibliography of Italian literary works translated into Mongolian must be compiled, All of the Italian originals must be located and correctly identified, The Russian, English, and Romanian intermediate translations must also be found and carefully consulted, If a work has been translated multiple times by a single translator, the multiple translations must be compared with each other and studied, If a work has been translated multiple times by different translators, the multiple translations must likewise be compared with each other and studied, The Italian originals of poems, songs, tales, and short stories which have been translated into Mongolian should be located and juxtaposed with their translations and published in book format for teaching and research purposes.

Milan Kundera – The Idea of Love in the Story "Laughable Loves" Summary Born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, Milan Kundera was a student when the Czech communist regime was established in 1948, and later worked as a laborer, jazz musician and professor at the Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies in Prague. His books were banned after the Russian occupation in August 1968. She and her husband settled in France in 1975, and in 1981 became French citizens. He is the author of the novels "Joke", "Life is Elsewhere", "Goodbye Waltz", "Book of Laughter and Forgetfulness", "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and "Immortality" and a collection of short stories "Laughable Loves" – all originally in Czech. His most recent novels, Slowness, Personality, and Ignorance, as well as his non-fiction works, Roman Art and Betrayed Will, were first written in French. The core of the themes that the author will work on in his later novels, as well as the original and innovative narrative methods in the development of these themes can be found in Kundera's "Laughable Loves", written with the greatest pleasure and delight. It can be said that the story book, which took ten years to write, is very different in terms of both content and form. In Kundera's stories, men persecute women with their "erotic passions." Married, single, old and young men face social difficulties, accept the loss of time and economic difficulties and try to attract women. Kundera beautifully reflects the universal challenges they face during this marathon. "Laughable Loves" is about raising the power of expression and aesthetics, as well as the successful depiction of this universal event – with humor.

The study presented here examines the problems of composition and architectonics of a work of fiction. The author analyses the correlation of these notions. A close examination of the types of compositional organization of a work of fiction has been carried out. It is noted that the problem of the composition of a work of fiction has a fairly long tradition. At the time, the problem was considered by Aristotle (4th century BC), who focused on the fact that the perfection of a work could be achieved by motivated selection and combination of separate elements into a single whole, which forms complete harmony. A study has been made of the theoretical aspects of the notion of «composition», as well as a demarcation with similar values such as «structure» and «architectonics», and a description of compositional techniques that clarify the functions of composition in a work of fiction. The article discusses the features of the composition and architectonics of «Canterbury Tales», a work by Geoffrey Chaucer, which was written at the end of the 14th century in Middle English, but remained unfinished. Chaucer’s literary skill is manifested in the fact that the stories reflect the individual traits and individual manner of narrating of the characters. The author depicts a wide canvas of English reality of his contemporary era. The book consists of a «Prologue», 22 verse and two prose stories, which are interconnected by interludes. The framing story reports on the development of the action. Borrowing the themes from numerous stories by other authors, Chaucer complicates the plot, saturates it with realistic details. At the same time, he connects the dynamics of action with psychological analysis. It is emphasized that the composition of a work of fiction is structured from the following main elements: plot — a series of events that are depicted in the work of fiction; conflict is a clash of characters and circumstances, views and principles of being, which are the basis of action. The conflict may arise between the individual and society or between characters. And in the mind of the hero, it can be explicit, hidden or imaginary. Plot elements reflect the stages of development of the conflict; prologue — a kind of introduction to the work, which tells about the events of the past and it emotionally sets the reader to perceive the work; exposition — an introduction to the main action, an description of the conditions and circumstances that preceded the beginning of the action (it can be expanded, non-deployed, integral and «torn», located at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the work); familiarization with the characters of the work, the circumstances and chronology against which the action takes place; starting point of the plot — the beginning of the plot movement (the event from which the conflict begins, further events develop); development of action — a system of events that are the result of the starting point of the plot; the conflict escalates, and contradictions appear more clearly and sharply; climax — the moment of the highest tension of the action, the peak of the conflict — after the climax, the action weakens; denouement — the resolution of the main conflict, or an indication of possible ways to resolve it. This is the final moment of the action of the work of fiction. At this stage of the composition, either the resolution of the conflict is demonstrated or the impossibility of its resolution is shown; epilogue — the final part of the work of fiction, which indicates the direction of further development of events and the fate of the characters. A short message about what happened to the acting characters of the work of fiction after the end of the main storyline. The study considers plot options: the plot can be presented in a direct sequence of events with digressions into the past — retrospectives. In addition, the plot may depict «excursions» into the future or deliberately show an altered sequence of events. Non-plot elements are: inserted episodes, author’s digressions. Therefore, it should be noted that the main function of the plot is to expand the scope of the depicted events and, thus, to reflect the position of the author in relation to various phenomena of life. The work of fiction may lack individual elements of the plot, and sometimes there are several storylines. Architectonic techniques used by the author create a special unique author’s style. And it is the author himself who chooses the main compositional elements. Thus, the composition of a work of fiction can be multifaceted, linear, circular, «a thread with beads». Masterful architectonics is not just the unity of the constituent parts of a work, it is the originality of a particular work, its beauty and uniqueness. It has been determined that the most important property of the composition of this work of Chaucer is its logical sequence. It is with the help of the composition that one can determine that in the «Canterbury Tales» the center of events is the journey of the pilgrims to the holy place. Architectonics is consequently the relationship between the parts of the work. For example, the prologue and epilogue are traditionally small, the prologue being located at the beginning and the epilogue at the end of the work. And the larger elements are located between the prologue and the epilogue. Thus, the architectonics of the elements of the work is logically consistent with each other. In the «Canterbury Tales», the event type of composition has a chronological form. There is a time distance between separate events, but there is no violation of the natural chronology.

The author examines the work of the famous writer and inventor, statesman and philanthropist of the XIX century Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky in the light of the addition of a new type of personality of the researcher and Herald of the modern artist. Odoevsky belonged to the kind of Desk scientist. He turned his homes into laboratories where various experiments were performed (from anatomical, electrical to culinary). Contemporaries called him “Russian Faust”. The life of a recluse was combined in him with an extraordinary breadth of interests and an all-embracing knowledge. In his experiments, he sought to overcome the isolation of various Sciences and arts and restore the rights of a single Universe of knowledge about the world. This article is the first attempt to bring this strategy closer to the world of Renaissance researchers and artists on the scale of Leonardo da Vinci, on the one hand, and to the metamodern themes of transparent borders and hybrid understanding of the Sciences and arts in modern times. The platform for the synthesis of sciences and arts in Odoevsky’s world, of course, was literature. Based on the interpretation of his philosophical works, science fiction novels and short stories, the author concludes that the “instinctual” knowledge extolled by Odoevsky is close to the ideas of the Surrealists (Andre Breton, Jan Schwankmayer). And the universe created inside the study silence anticipates the images of a strange collector of knowledge, the Creator of installations on poetic and scientific themes in shadow-boxes by Joseph Cornell. Locked in the walls of the study, like a “town in a snuffbox” (the name of the Prince’s most famous novel), the philosophical art world of V. F. Odoevsky is endowed with the power of prophecy and inquiry about many subsequent discoveries in science, art, and society. As a modern artist, Prince Odoevsky does not give ready-made recipes and systematic explanations of the laws of life, but forces the interlocutor (reader-viewer) to be a co-Creator and take responsibility for the intellectual solution of the situations and incidents presented by the author. At the end of the article, we offer a brief overview of the exhibition held in the Museum of Moscow in 2019 (‘Cosmorama XVIII’), in which the life and art (the art of life) of Prince Vladimir Odoevsky entered into a dialogue with the works of contemporary artists.

Presents an interview with Don Gallo, editor of seven anthologies of short stories and one collection of plays, and author or editor of seven books about young adult fiction for teachers and scholars.

The short-short story was first introduced by Japanese writer Tsuzuki Michio, who in the late 1950s – the early 1960s familiarized the Japanese reader with extra-short stories of American author Fredric W. Brown (1906–1972); his traditions were followed by Japanese writer Hoshi Shin’ichi (1926–1997), Akagawa Jirō (b. 1948), and other authors experimenting in the new genre of social and psychological science fiction, as well as in the genre of fantasy and detective stories. In American literature, three major specific features of a short-short story were formulated: 1) a fresh idea, 2) an unexpected turn of events, 3) an unpredictable ending. These specific features can be traced in Japanese extra-short stories as well. Since the process of the emergence and development of the extra-short story as a new form of Japanese literature was influenced by American micro fiction, the research examines the elements borrowed from Fredric W. Brown’s micro fiction in Hoshi Shin’ichi’s and Akagawa Jirō’s first short-short stories; this includes genres, topics, canons, artistic styles and devices, as well as the treatment of certain social problems. The paper analyzes Hoshi’s and Akagawa’s short-short fiction from a comparative perspective, with an emphasis on intertextuality – shaping of a text’s meaning by another text, in this case, the texts by an American writer. Some literary parallels to Fredric W. Brown’s micro fiction can be found in Hoshi Shin’ichi’s first collection of short-short stories «Bokko-chan» (1971), which consists of stories written in 1958–1970, as well as in Akagawa Jirō’s first collection of short-short stories «The Dancing Man» (1986), which consists of stories written in the late 1970s – early 1980s. The succession of plots and philosophical ideas by Brown is examined on the material of seven early short-shorts by Hoshi, where the allusion to the American writer’s micro fiction can be traced; in addition, it is also noted that, in some mystic extra-short stories by Akagawa, it is not the plots which are borrowed, but mostly artistic devices and various techniques, such as psychologism, black humor, wordplay, and metaphorical images. American origins of the Japanese short-short story are investigated for the first time.

In the article, we analyze the concept of fiction in the short story collection «Crumbs» (2019) by the Ukrainian writer Petro Soroka. In this book, the author directly speaks out about his vision of literature; in some tales, he makes digressions, comments on his writing practice and narration, and outlines his understanding of fiction. All these things create a balance between the author’s intentions and concrete texts. In a broad context, the book is a valuable source for researching short stories in modern Ukrainian literature, the nature of fiction in general, and the understanding of fictionality these days. Soroka considered «Crumbs» the pinnacle of his writing. But the book remains unnoticed. The relevance of the article is grounded on this. The aim of the article is to outline and identify the conception of fiction proposed in «Crumbs». For that, we solve two main tasks – analyzing the author’s reflections and tracing the realized and unrealized intentions in concrete works. The central thesis of Soroka is that literature should mirror life. He uses theological reasoning to explain the mirror reflection in fiction (because God creates human fates, he is the best artist, so the goal of literature is not to make-believe but to reflect what God intended). We interpret this thesis and conclude that the author eliminates the main components of fictionality – the make-believe and the filling with meaning. He finds some fictionality in the representation of characters, the depiction of the current time, and the mastery of retelling. But we state that all these fictional components have lost their status because, these days, they are the constituents of nonfictional genres or texts in nonfictional spheres. The only thing that remains when it comes to fiction is the genre. The author names his writings «short stories». So the fictionality of «Crumbs» is a consensus between author and reader about the genre of the book. It arises in a receptive context. Soroka’s short stories are like artifacts that occur because of rethinking subjects in an uncharacteristic, changed context. In this sense, they are contemporary art phenomena. These conclusions about «Crumbs» may become a basis for researching the other writings by Petro Soroka and the short stories of other Ukrainian writers.

Ernest Hemingway wrote to F. Scott Fitzgerald that “The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life — and one is as good as the other” (305). With that, I created a collection of short stories that analyzes my generation of women’s struggles. Framing the thesis are two stories involving three women, Lindsey, Jenny, and Sarah, “The Generation of Discontent” and “Revisions,” with the characters attempting to sort through love, success, and happiness in society. The piece “The Bachelor” has Amanda torn between her currently successful life and the glamour and sometimes infamy of being on ABC’s reality show The Bachelor. In “Eggs Kennedy Style,” the fine line between delusion and dreams becomes defined in both Nan and Kelley of being one of America’s royal Kennedy family. “Cops and Robbers” shows the inner turmoil of women who do not aspire to be mothers and feel guilty for their aspirations as well asthe resulting resentment when they have to give up their dreams. The ideas of taking your loved one for granted and life goals become the driving aspect of “Flat Tire” where story picks up in the middle of major fight between Nicole and Tommy stemming from him dropping the garter the night before at their friend’s wedding. “Almond Blossoms” between a flashback to Amsterdam with Sam’s Dutch fling Andric and present time suburban Ohio with her finance Kevin showing the conflict of being single compared to being settled. As Fitzgerald said, “An author ought to write for his generation” (ix) and I wrote based on my personal experiences as well as my friends’ tales and tribulations that tell of our generation’s struggle. Giving a voice to the high hopes and resulting discontent I feel is important which models the Modern writers like Fitzgerald’s Gatsby’s green lighted hope for Daisy. I hope to revive a bit of that Modern era in my time though our green light just might be the glow of The Bachelor from the television.

AbstractThis chapter examines the excavation of memories and truths that officialdom would rather remain buried in the work of French noir novelist Didier Daeninckx. It examines Daeninckx’s (Le roman noir de l’Histoire. Lagrasse: Verdier, 2019) magnum opus Le roman noir de l’Histoire. This is not a novel as historical document or as historical mimesis but rather a collection of seventy-six short stories that collectively recount eleven periods in French and European history from 1855 to 2030—and where the emphasis is placed on the kaleidoscopic nature of ‘history from below’, that is, individual fragments that do not necessarily add up to a coherent whole. The chapter argues that Daeninckx’s move from the crime novel to short stories (where crimes occur) complicates the genre’s typical preference for linearity where a single investigation is brought to resolution.

Abstract While a Chance Acquaintance was running through the Atlantic, James remarked to his sister that he was relishing every installment. “But what a pity,” he added, “that with such pretty art, [Howells] can’t embrace a larger piece of the world.”1 By now James’s complaint was a familiar one. Suburban Sketches, Their Wedding Journey, A Chance Acquaintance: all had suffered from the same want of largeness and scope. An impoverished cultural landscape–which had been, as James viewed it, the debilitating curse of Hawthorne–continued to plague the American artist. And yet Howells had managed to publish three sizable books in as many years, and a fourth was on the way.2 (At this rate he was outproducing, if not outperforming, Hawthorne himself.) For all his copious magazine scribbling, James had not yet brought out a single volume, although his editor had generously encouraged him to gather some short stories together and promised to intercede with a publisher on behalf of the venture. The elder Henry James also volunteered to perform a similar office for his son. While he appreciated the sincerity of their offers, the ambitious younger James preferred to wait. He wanted, in particular, to grapple with the marketplace firsthand, to dispense with (even friendly) intermediaries, and to start himself, as he put it, “on a remunerative and perfectly practical literary basis.”3 James wanted to profit by the example of Howells’s early career as editor and author, at the same time that he intended to escape what he viewed as the inherent limitations of his friend’s literary situation.

This chapter reviews the most neglected forms of Penelope Fitzgerald’s writing: her short stories, poems and letters. Although Fitzgerald claimed not to be able to write short stories, the evidence of the ten stories collected in The Means of Escape, and of the other eleven uncollected stories that survive, suggests otherwise. The chapter shows how Fitzgerald’s short fiction shares with her novels themes of misunderstanding, disappointment and loneliness. Other continuities include Fitzgerald’s tragicomic wit, art of compression, and taste for the macabre. Yet the chapter also shows how the stories differ from the novels. The sense of disruption of the accepted order of things is concentrated in the stories to the point of menace. The author’s presence, more pervasive and inescapable in the stories than in the novels, obscures the dividing line between author and narrator. By contrast, Fitzgerald’s handful of poems are surprisingly intimate and self-revealing, confronting the reader with a starker, more private version of Fitzgerald’s authorial persona. The letters, written to family, friends, literary editors and writers, provide a different kind of evidence of Fitzgerald’s sharp wit, intelligence and powers of observation.

In the Introduction, the author introduces the core concepts of the book and provides a brief description of each chapter. Using a dataset of one hundred anthologies, the author identifies seven prominent writers of African American short fiction. Technology is also used for “cultural geo-tagging,” a process of identifying, quantifying, and organizing the geographic markers across several stories. Geo-tagging is used to understand how Black writers make cultural spaces integral to their artwork. Beyond mentioning various places and settings, writers explore locations through the characters that they present. A focus on geography prompts consideration for what the author refers to as homegrown and outsider characters. The author establishes an approach that focuses on geographic settings and the positionality of characters, presenting special opportunities for considering vital elements that make short stories such captivating compositions.

This chapter explores the writing of Ali Smith from the late 1990s to the publication of How to be Both (2014). It concentrates primarily on her novels and short stories, though some attention is paid to her occasional writings. The chapter is broken into two broad generic sections, the first addressing her short stories together, the second her novels in chronological order. Each text is given close analytical study through formal, stylistic, and thematic critique, building to an overview of an author whose moral sense of duty for the care of the other is paradoxically set against her confusion at the impenetrability of that other’s being.

The conclusion first highlights the value of utilizing data in classes on African American and American literature. The uses of data motivated students and the author to engage short fiction in new and exciting ways based on what they discovered. Identifying and quantifying interrelated factors about dozens of stories prompted us to consider the importance of numerical information derived from literary art. Second, the conclusion reaffirms the significance of cultural geo-tagging as a method for exploring African American short fiction. An approach that focuses on geographic settings and the positionality of characters presents us with special opportunities for considering vital elements that make short stories such captivating compositions.

Short fiction has the power to leave social impact within a short period of time. Rebelliousness of the generation of the 1960s was best captured in the "children's stories" of Samad Behrangi. He single-handedly became the most influential writer and cultural figure of the guerrilla movement in Iran. Through his works, he rendered the possibility of imagining a different world, better than the colonizing world of monarchical modernization.

Ng Kim Chew is a Chinese Malaysian author of short fiction and literary scholar who lives in Taiwan. Born in Johor, Ng migrated to Taiwan to attend Taiwan University in 1989. After earning his doctorate from Tsinghua University, Ng became professor of Chinese literature at National Chinan University. Despite residing and publishing in Taiwan, Ng’s short fiction is largely set in Southeast Asia. His stories explore language and literary history, interethnic and religious politics, indigenous and diasporic nationalism, exile, migration and hybridity. As the winner of several Chinese literary awards, Ng’s short fiction is highly ironic, satirical and farcical.

Some spinsters are happy-go-lucky and live life to the fullest, whereas others lead depressed and unhappy lives. The seminal stories, Walker Brothers Cowboy and Images,taken from Munro’s maidan publication, Dance of the Happy Shadespublished in 1968, reflect upon the childhood experiences. Munro brilliantly portraysNora Cronin and Mary McQuade, the two elderly single women, through the eyes of young girls.

The chapter explores the gendered imperial politics in short fiction for children through analyzing “The Mowgli Stories” and “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi,” selected from nineteenth-century colonialist author Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1894). The reason for the selection of the stories is that they have not attracted the interest they deserve as products and perpetuators of the gendered imperial ideology. The chapter asserts that they both reflect the British concerns about the future potential Indian rebellions after the Mutiny of 1857 and applaud the faithful colonizing Indians' struggle against the rebellious ones through masculinist power of body and language. The stories narrate the masculinized bodily actions of the double outsider animalized characters involved in violence after the rebellion of one of them in colonial India. Thus, the chapter indicates the author's response to the mutiny through the techniques empowering masculinized imperialism in allegorical fiction for children.

The article presents the results of the analysis of the functions of interrogative sentences in modern experimental (fragmented) fiction, that reflects the processes of disintegration, based on the works of small prose (about 5 % of all short story texts) published in the magazines “Znamya”, “Octyabr’” and “Novyj mir” in the last 5 years. The selection of the material is based on the author’s definition of the narrative genre (short story, small prose, other prose, prose), on the formed discreteness of the text (various types of rubrication at the level of macro-syntax, at the level of microsyntax — the dismemberment of the syntagmatic chain of the sentence, the elimination of connectivity indicators, the use of alternative punctuation), on the identification of non-standard metagraphemics as the design piece of art’s means. A comprehensive analysis of the disintegration degree of small volume texts with interrogative sentences (question marks), pragmatics (types of questions), structural features (single questions, chains of interrogative sentences, combination with parcellation), the context of the introduction (position in the structure of the text and the presence/absence of a direct answer in a question-and-answer situation) allows you to determine the following functions of interrogative sentences in the text of experimental prose of small form 1) complication of the subject perspective of the text by removing the traditional punctuation of the parties of speakers in dialogues and including private questions in them; 2) metalanguage narrator’s reflection performing in the text with the help of existential rhetorical questions and unanswered questions; 3) the performance of the text-forming function of interrogative sentences in lyric monologues reflecting auto-communication. The revealed features of questions in modern prose reflect the author’s search for a means of compensation for disintegration, the increasing colloquialism of a literary text and the change in the recipient’s perception of his narrative (the desire to remove distance, modeling online communication), which is predetermined by the orientation to the modern reader, the search for new forms of artistic communication. Refs 18.