Open research questions in Short Stories in Global Literature

What the literature leaves open

• The paper identifies a gap in understanding the social life of a group that overcame displacement to create a home for themselves in Wentworth. The study fills this gap by providing a social history from below, giving voice to the residents' stories and experiences.

  Gregory Houston, Heidi van Rooyen, Bronwynne Anderson, Darian Smith, Theresa SaberJr. , Maree Harold, and Marilyn Couch. A Social History from Below: Life Stories from Wentworth, South Africa. Lynne Rienner, 2024. 336 pp. Bibliography. Index. $45.00. Paperback. ISBN: 9780796926753. · 2026 · DOI

• The study identifies a gap in the existing literature on the psychological dimensions of African women's experiences in patriarchal societies. The study highlights the need for a more nuanced understanding of the complexities of gender oppression and its effects on women's lives.

  Resistance, conquered identity and the struggle for self-reinvention: A psychoanalysis of Chika Unigwe’s On Black Sisters’ Street · 2026 · DOI

• Future research could explore the implications of Carter's work for feminist literary criticism and postmodern Gothic studies. The study's findings could inform the development of new feminist literary theories and critiques.

  Gothic Feminism in Angela Carter's Short Stories · 2026 · DOI

• The study identifies a gap in the representation of women in Gothic fiction, where women are often depicted as vulnerable and oppressed figures. The research seeks to address this gap by examining Carter's transformation of traditional Gothic conventions into feminist instruments of resistance and empowerment.

  Gothic Feminism in Angela Carter's Short Stories · 2026 · DOI

• There is a gap in Hurstonian criticism, which the paper attempts to fill by analyzing her urban stories. The paper identifies a need to further analyze the connection between love and trouble in Hurston's work.

  On Love and Trouble in Zora Neale Hurston’s Urban Stories · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies the challenge of determining the mean for exposure to photographs of violence and suffering. It acknowledges the challenge of balancing the need for exposure to these photographs with the risk of desensitization.

  Susan Sontag and Our Duties towards Photographs of Violence and Suffering · 2026 · DOI

• Future research could explore the empirical aspects of exposure to photographs of violence and suffering. It could investigate the effects of different levels of exposure on our moral development.

  Susan Sontag and Our Duties towards Photographs of Violence and Suffering · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in understanding the crisis of narration and its impact on marginalized subjects, - The paper identifies a need to explore how gendered life stories function as narrative technologies

  Introduction to the Special Issue: Gendered Life Stories and the Politics of Imagination · 2026 · DOI

• The article identifies a gap in understanding how Indigenous women's experiences of trauma and resistance are conveyed in literature. The article aims to address this gap by examining The Break as a novel that explores intergenerational trauma and resistance in Indigenous women under colonial oppression in Canada.

  Enduring colonial violence: Trauma, community and resistance in Katherena Vermette’s The Break · 2026 · DOI

• This means that healers are not limited to addressing aches and pains, but also provide teachings and support to address what they understand to be the root of the disease itself. 28 At the same time, we believe that it is impor- tant to understand how Indigenous principles, as drawn from a small sample of stories from diverse communities and Nations, may provide a path for further research into how to promote safety in a decolonizing way.

  Enduring colonial violence: Trauma, community and resistance in Katherena Vermette’s The Break · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the current understanding of BPD diagnosis. The study highlights the need to consider the social and cultural context of women's experiences. The paper argues that the current psychiatric knowledge reproduces gender biases.

  Género, opresión e injusticia hermenéutica: aportes críticos de mujeres mexicanas con discapacidad psicosocial frente al trastorno límite de la personalidad · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the existing literature on the experiences of migrant women and the complex issues surrounding prostitution. The study notes that there is a need for a comprehensive understanding of the experiences of migrant women and the importance of addressing the social and economic factors that drive prostitution.

  Impact of Migration Spaces on the Prostitute Character in On Black Sister Streets · 2026 · DOI

• The study identifies a gap in the literature on the portrayal of physical marital violence in Ugandan short narratives. The study highlights the need for more research on the connection between patriarchy, silence, and cultural norms that normalise domestic violence.

  Silent Cries in Homes: Unveiling Marital Physical Violence in Ugandan Short Narratives · 2026 · DOI

• Future research could explore the theme of transgenerational trauma in other literary works. Future research could examine the use of life testimony in depicting real-life traumatic events. Future research could investigate the intersection of trauma studies and autobiographical fiction.

  OPPRESSION AND TRANSGENERATIONAL TRAUMA IN OCEAN VUONG’S ON EARTH WE’RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the literature on trauma studies and autobiographical fiction. The paper argues that there is a need for more research on the theme of transgenerational trauma in literature.

  OPPRESSION AND TRANSGENERATIONAL TRAUMA IN OCEAN VUONG’S ON EARTH WE’RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS · 2026 · DOI

• The traditional association of the werewolf with aberration and bestiality. The lack of queer perspectives on the werewolf figure. The need to challenge normative expectations of werewolf narratives.

  Disorientation as Liberation: A Queer Phenomenology of the Werewolf Figures in Carter’s “The Werewolf” and Le Guin’s “The Wife’s Story” · 2026 · DOI

• Future research could explore the application of ecofeminist theory to other literary works. The study suggests that further analysis of the relationship between gender hierarchies and the control of nature could provide new insights into the complexities of women's experiences.

  Sociocultural Dimensions of Nature and Gender in Alice Munro’s Boys and Girls · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of how patriarchal systems construct symbolic associations between women and nature. The study highlights the need to consider the relationship between gender hierarchies and the control of nature in literary analysis.

  Sociocultural Dimensions of Nature and Gender in Alice Munro’s Boys and Girls · 2026 · DOI

• Further analysis of the novel's portrayal of a totalitarian regime and its implications for feminist dystopian fiction. Exploration of the ways in which subtle forms of resistance can be used to challenge ideological hegemony in real-world contexts.

  Resistance, Power, and Protest: Socio-Political Activism in the Handmaid’s Tale · 2026 · DOI

• The gap between the novel's portrayal of a totalitarian regime and the actual historical practices that it is drawn from. The gap between the novel's highlighting of subtle forms of resistance and the lack of attention to these forms in traditional analyses of resistance.

  Resistance, Power, and Protest: Socio-Political Activism in the Handmaid’s Tale · 2026 · DOI

• The dominant discourse on migration restricts discussions of displacement to a narrow lexicon of loss. The paper identifies a gap in the literature by arguing that the contemporary African female-authored literary archive offers a critical and corrective epistemic space.

  Cruel optimisms and erotic economies: Feminist life-making beyond arrival in On Black Sisters’ Street · 2026 · DOI

• Future research could further explore the intersection of Romanticism and postmodernism in contemporary literature. Future research could investigate the implications of the study's findings for the teaching and interpretation of Glück's poetry.

  Romantic Longing and Postmodern Doubt in "The White Lilies" · 2026 · DOI

• Future research can build on this study by examining other Filipino writers and their representation of women's roles and identities. The study can be extended by analyzing the impact of Evasco's work on feminist movements and activism in the Philippines.

  Philippine Postmodern Feminist Narratives: A Literary Analysis of Marjorie Evasco’s Selected Poems · 2026 · DOI

• The study identifies a research gap in the limited scholarship on Evasco's work in relation to postmodern feminist theory. The research gap lies in the need for a closer analysis of Evasco's poems through a postmodern feminist lens.

  Philippine Postmodern Feminist Narratives: A Literary Analysis of Marjorie Evasco’s Selected Poems · 2026 · DOI

• Further research could examine the representation of women in other literary works. Further research could explore the impact of literary works on societal attitudes towards women.

  Women's Images in Iksaka Banu's Novel Rasina: A Feminist Literary Criticism Study · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Short Stories in Global Literature

• Learning from the Outsider Within: The Sociological Significance of Black Feminist Thought · Social Problems · 1986 · 1,845 citations
• In a Different Voice: Women's Conceptions of Self and of Morality · Harvard Educational Review · 1977 · 1,807 citations
• From Passive Acceptance to Active Commitment · The Counseling Psychologist · 1985 · 375 citations
• Narrative as self-portrait: Sociolinguistic constructions of identity · Language in Society · 1996 · 345 citations
• Trapped in the Wrong Theory: Rethinking Trans Oppression and Resistance · Signs · 2013 · 270 citations
• ‘I am not the kind of woman who complains of everything’: Illness stories on self and shame in women with chronic pain · Social Science & Medicine · 2004 · 258 citations
• Katherine, washed out one day, back on track the next: a post-mortem of a tourism disaster · Tourism Management · 2001 · 220 citations
• Traddutora, Traditora: A Paradigmatic Figure of Chicana Feminism · Cultural Critique · 1989 · 208 citations
• WOMEN AND THEIR HAIR · Gender & Society · 2001 · 190 citations
• Woman's Place in Man's Life Cycle · Harvard Educational Review · 1979 · 185 citations

Most recent work

• Abolition Feminist Storytelling as Methodology: Lessons Within the Stories We (Re)Tell About Punishment and Violence · Feminist Criminology · 2026
• Five Generations, One Household: An African American Autoethnography of Family Systems, Identity, and Intergenerational Resilience · Journal of Family Theory & Review · 2026
• Relational Time, Female Transgenerational Bonds and Herstory in Linda Grant’s The Story of the Forest (2023) · Critique Studies in Contemporary Fiction · 2026
• CHARACTERIZATION AND CHARACTER DESCRIPTION IN THE NOVELLAS 'FLOATING BRIDGE', 'NETTLES', AND 'WHAT IS REMEMBERED' · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
• Regenerating Indigenous Identity: A Reading of In Search of April Raintree · SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH · 2026
• Resistance, conquered identity and the struggle for self-reinvention: A psychoanalysis of Chika Unigwe’s On Black Sisters’ Street · African Research Reports · 2026
• Hermeneutical Rebellion as Lordean Self-Care: Resisting Identity Harm Through and Against Breast Cancer Survivor Narratives · Hypatia · 2026
• Gothic Feminism in Angela Carter's Short Stories · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
• On Love and Trouble in Zora Neale Hurston’s Urban Stories · Studia Philologica · 2026
• Sociodrama for Our Time. By Rosalie Minkin. Selfpublished, 2013. · The Journal of Psychodrama Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy · 2026

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