The short story as an autonomous genre has called the attention of both writers and literary critics with theoretical concerns over the last two centuries. It is a form of writing that has met the favour of readers and publishers alike: because of its very brevity, it can be consumed in a short time, and so come up to a reader s need of either escapist or serious literature; it can be practiced, like the novel, according to different narrative modalities: from popular genres, which satisfy the demands of the literary market, to experimental writing. Finally, as a self-contained form, it works...