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短篇小说作为独立的文学体裁,起源于18世纪的英国。当时的英国社会发生了重大的变化。18世纪头10年间,资本主义工商业迅猛发展,形成了新的强大的社会势力,即越来越富有的城市中产阶级。这些人渴望文化,并拥有足够的钱财和闲暇来追求和享受文化。但是,他们的教育水平和艺术修养却难以欣赏戏剧和诗歌这两种传统的文学形式。对于这个属于宫廷贵族和乡村绅士的特权世界,城市中产阶级知之甚少,无法与之溶为一体。于是,一旦机会来临,中产阶级读者便转向散文体小说,先是长篇小说,稍后便是短篇小说。小说这种文学体裁几乎完全独立于当时已经确立的文学标准。因此,由新兴的读者群体来决定小说的题材、主题和视角也就成了理所当然的事了。
Short stories as an independent literary genre originated in the 18th century Britain. Great changes have taken place in British society at the time. During the first decade of the 18th century, the rapid development of capitalist industry and commerce led to the formation of a new and powerful social force, the richer urban middle class. These people long for culture and have enough money and leisure to pursue and enjoy the culture. However, their level of education and artistic accomplishment are hard to appreciate the two traditional literary forms of drama and poetry. For this privileged world, belonging to court aristocrats and village gentlemen, the urban middle class is poorly informed and unable to dissolve into one. Thus, once the opportunity comes, middle-class readers turn to prose novels, first novels, and later short stories. The literary genre of the novel is almost entirely independent of the literary standards that were then established. Therefore, it is only a matter of course that the subject, perspective, and angle of view of the novelist group are determined by the emerging reader community.