Hardly Anything (creative) & A Form Built on Tension (critical): A Practice-Based Investigation of the Short Story Cycle as a Literary Genre

This is a practice-based PhD thesis, with creative and critical components. The creative component is a short story cycle, Hardly Anything, which explores the marriage between characters Tony and Linda, and their relationship with their son, Jarlath. The cycle, set in contemporary Ireland, spans four decades, beginning in the 1970s before concluding in the year 2019. Across a narrative of three parts and 26 chapters, the reader witnesses the oscillations, great and small, in the lives of Tony, Linda, Jarlath, and the people around them. The cycle deals with ideas of miscommunication and deceit, long-term love, and those parts of ourselves that are passed between generations.
The critical component investigates aspects of the short story cycle as a literary genre. Using the writing of Hardly Anything as research method, the study proposes that while scholars of the short story cycle have been accurate in their identification of the form’s defining characteristic – its tension between unity and multiplicity – a more comprehensive understanding of that tension can be realised through creative practice. The study will demonstrate why the tension exists, as well as what differentiates it from the tension present in other book-length fictional forms, such as the novel. The study is comprised of four sections, which address the following questions:
• What is the history of the short story cycle as a literary genre and how has it been defined?
• To what extent can Hardly Anything be identified as a short story cycle?
• What does the process of writing a cycle reveal about the genre’s tension between unity and multiplicity?
• What does the future of the short story cycle genre look like, specifically with regards to its breaking into the literary mainstream, its suitability for portraying particular ideas, and its potential role as a developmental form for writers?