African American Short Story

Annotation

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this course is to offer the students an introduction into African American literature via the genre of the short story. We will be reading short stories by some of the best-known African American male and female authors of the nineteenth and the twentieth century. The chronological approach will help the students get an idea of some of the most important aspects of black American history as well as some of the most pressing issues of this minority group?s literary and cultural production. The primary texts will be supplemented by secondary, critical readings.

ASSESSMENT regular attendance, active participation in discussions, in-class presentation, final essay (min. 3000 words)

MATERIAL

PRIMARY:

Baldwin, James. ?Sonny?s Blues.? Going to Meet the Man. New York: Dell, 1965. 86-122.

---.?Going to Meet the Man.? Going to Meet the Man. New York: Dell, 1965. 198-218.

Bambara, Toni Cade. ?Gorilla, My Love.? Gorilla, My Love by Toni Cade Bambara. New York: Random, 1960. 13-20.

Baraka, Amiri. ?The Alternative.? Calling the Wind: Twentieth-Century African-American Short Stories. Ed. Clarence Major. New York: Harper, 1993. 261-74.

Butler, Octavia. ?Bloodchild.? The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Eds. Henry Louis Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. New York: Norton, 1997. 2480-494.

Chesnutt, Charles. ?The Sheriff?s Children.? The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers: An Anthology from 1899 to the Present. Boston: Little, Brown, 1967. 1-16.

---. ?Wife of His Youth.? Online: http://docsouth.unc.edu/chesnuttwife/cheswife.html

---. ?The Goophered Grapevine.? The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Eds. Henry Louis Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. New York: Norton, 1997. 523-32.

Du Bois, W.E.B. ?On Being Crazy.? From the Roots: Short Stories by Black Americans. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1973. Ed. Charles L. James. 43-44.

Ellison, Ralph. ?King of the Bingo Game.? Flying Home and Other Stories. New York: Random, 1996. 123-36.

Douglass, Frederick. ?The Heroic Slave.? Online: http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/douglass1853/menu.html

Dunbar, Paul Laurence. ?The Scapegoat.? The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers: An Anthology from 1899 to the Present. Boston: Little, Brown, 1967. 17-29.

---. ?The Lynching of Jube Benson.? American Negro Short Stories. Ed. John Henrik Clarke. New York: Hill and Wang, 1966. 1-8.

Gaines, Ernest J. ?A Long Day in November.? From the Roots: Short Stories by Black Americans. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1973. Ed. Charles L. James. 302-40.

Harper, Francis. ?The Two Offers.? The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Eds. Henry Louis Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. New York: Norton, 1997. 423-30.

Hopkins, Pauline. ?The Mystery Within Us.? Short Fiction by Black Women, 1900-1920. Ed. Elizabeth Ammons. New York: Oxford UP, 1991. 21-26.

---.?As the Lord Lives, He is One of Our Mother?s Children.? Short Fiction by Black Women, 1900-1920. Ed. Elizabeth Ammons. New York: Oxford UP, 1991. 276-86.

Hughes, Langston. ?The Blues I?m Playing.? The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Eds. Henry Louis Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. New York: Norton, 1997. 1271-282.

---. ?One Friday Morning.? American Negro Short Stories. Ed. John Henrik Clarke. New York: Hill and Wang, 1966. 114-23.

Hurston, Zora Neale. ?The Gilded Six-Bits.? The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Eds. Henry Louis Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. New York: Norton, 1997. 1011-19.

---.?Sweat.? The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Eds. Henry Louis Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. New York: Norton, 1997. 999-1008.

Johnson, Charles. ?The Education of Mingo.? The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Eds. Henry Louis Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. New York: Norton, 1997. 2509-518.

Jones, Gayl. ?Asylum.? White Rat: Short Stories by Gayl Jones. Boston: Northeastern UP, 1971. 77-81.

Larsen, Nella. ?Sanctuary.? Calling the Wind: Twentieth-Century African-American Short Stories. Ed. Clarence Major. New York: Harper, 1993. 34-38.

McPherson, James Alan. ?A Solo Song: For Doc.? The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Eds. Henry Louis Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. New York: Norton, 1997. 1986-2002.

McKay, Claude. ?Truant.? American Negro Short Stories. Ed. John Henrik Clarke. New York: Hill and Wang, 1966. 41-54.

Petry, Ann. ?Like a Winding Sheet.? From the Roots: Short Stories by Black Americans. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1973. Ed. Charles L. James. 233-41.

---. ?Solo on the Drums.? American Negro Short Stories. Ed. John Henrik Clarke. New York: Hill and Wang, 1966. 165-69.

---. ?Mother Africa.? Miss Muriel and Other Stories. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1945. 127-62.

Toomer, Jean. ?Fern.? Cane. New York: Harper, 1969. 24-33.

Walker, Alice. ?Nineteen fifty-five.? You Can?t Keep a Good Woman Down: Stories by Alice Walker. San Diego: Harcourt, 1971. 3-20.

Wideman, John Edgar. ?Fever.? Fever: Twelve Stories. New York: Henry Holt, 1989. 127-61.

Wright, Richard. ?Bright and Morning Star.? American Negro Short Stories. Ed. John Henrik Clarke. New York: Hill and Wang, 1966. 75-108.

---. ?Long Black Song.? The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Eds. Henry Louis Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. New York: Norton, 1997. 1397-414.