ABSTRACT

Because short stories are put under pressure by shortness itself, they tend to use loaded language, thus innuendo, implication, and symbolism. Unlike sequential narratives, image (spatial or lyrical) structures dominate several of Barbey’s stories. Writers have long been aware of the effectiveness arising from structuring their works to incite readers to provide what the text merely implies. Barbeyd’Aurevilly’s “Don Juan” and “Le Dessous de cartes,” for example, implicitly connect such cultural meanings to the various names and images,thus providing these enigmatic stories with considerable power.