The changing face of Minimalism in American Literature

Abstract EN

Recent scholarship on literary minimalism reflects a renewed interest in a mode of writing which many (prematurely) declared as bygone.

Although such a literary legacy began, in earnest, with the short stories of Hemingway, it is mostly tied to the 1980s short fiction.

Its current resurgence in some contemporary works indicates a yet-unexplored diversity and expansiveness underlying the ostensible terseness and incompleteness of minimalist texts.

Hence, the present essay revisits a century-long tradition in order to explore its tides and ebbs.

Particularly, it highlights how minimalist tendencies are adapted in different contexts (historical, social and cultural) for different aesthetic purposes.

Veracity, trueness and simplicity are the enduring principles through which minimalism’s changing face remains recognizable.