Contents

Foreword by J. Hillis Miller

Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART I Style and Covert Progressions in American Short Fiction

1 Style, Unreliability, and Hidden Dramatic Irony: Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”

2 Style and Unobtrusive Emasculating Satire: Crane’s “An Episode of War”

3 Style, Surprise Ending, and Covert Mythologization: Chopin’s “Désirée’s Baby”

PART II Style and Different Forms of Covert Progression in Mansfield’s Fiction

4 Style, Changing Distance, and Doubling Irony: Mansfield’s “Revelations”

5 Style and Concealed Social Protest: Mansfield’s “The Singing Lesson”

6 Style and Secretly Unifying the Digressive: Mansfield’s “The Fly”

Coda

Notes

Works Cited

Index