Abstract
The goal of the current study was to examine the strange genre-related loops in the novel The Short Story Master, by Maya Arad (2009), through the tension between the two genres represented in the text and their cultural contexts. The plot of the novel tells of the professional and personal crisis of the master of the short story, who failed in his mission to write a novel. The text hints to the reader that the central conflict that moves the plot along is neither romantic nor existential, but rather genre-related, and thus the entire work is a manifestation of self-conscious literature. The focus of the discussion is on the concept of strange loops coined by Hofstadter (1979, 2007). The strange genre-related loops in the narrative are represented in three different spheres: the textual construct, the array of characters, and the perception of creative writing. Reviewing the strange genre-related loops in this work highlights the unique nature of this text, which attempts to establish itself as a short story – novel, while demonstrating an awareness of its artistic and cultural contexts.
Recommended Citation
Levin, Orna.
"Strange Genre-related Loops in a Novel-Short Story: The Tension between the Genres and their Cultural Context."
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture
23.3
(2021):
<https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.3463>
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