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Is the Doll's house by Katherine Mansfield considered a modern short story or a traditional short story?
I think it is considered a modern short story because it uses dramatic irony, and and is concerned with character development and psychological overtones.
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To me, the "Modern Short Story" is defined by social realism, imaginative settings or objects, and a tendency to the exotic. In my definition, Doll's house does all these.
What is the definition of a "modern" short story as you have been given it, Justine? There are as many "definitions" as there are critics, it seems. "Traditional" stories are often defined as "tales" as in the Arabian Nights, or fables, as in Aesop's Fables, with rather loose plots and "stock" or archetypal characters. "Modern" stories have a well-crafted plot with emphasis on character development. Others define "modern" stories as having little or no plot, per se, with indecipherable meaning. They may describe an event, usually fictional, that just happens to the person described with no particular relationship to the world around him or her. What definition have you been given?
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