Flash fiction as a new avenue to address social vices: a case study of Vincent de Paul’s flashes of vice, Volume 1

Abstract

Advancement in technology and the internet age has given rise to new platforms of sharing ideas thus leading to the rise and development of flash fiction. This paper analyzes flash fiction as a new avenue for addressing social vices in the digital age. Some of the vices addressed in the selected mini-fictions resonate with the Sustainable Development Goals showing how writers rely on global trends in their creative processes. Marxist literary theory was adopted to examine the social vices that the selected texts address. The article argues that these exemplary flashes are used to develop and propagate complex themes with a long literary history and a wide contemporary relevance. It therefore avers that flash fictions of East Africa have a literary significance just like other genres of art. It is a new avenue to addressing human challenges with wide readership. Flash fiction and the new media are therefore seen as new frontiers in fostering education, research and economic recovery. Keywords: flash fiction, social vices, short stories, readership, new media