A Little Cloud

by James Joyce

A Little Cloud: Genre 1 key example

Genre
Explanation and Analysis:

“A Little Cloud” is a modernist short story. Modernist literature emerged in the 20th century as a mode of writing that challenged traditional literary conventions by centering narratives on everyday people, telling stories in meandering and fragmented ways, and leaving readers without a happy ending. This movement emerged out of modernist writers’ disillusionment with industrialized, modern society—they did not want to write stories about joyful or heroic people because such narratives did not match the alienation they saw in society (especially among oppressed people).