English test 2

it was certain that there were no plot short stories ever lived in any life I had known anything about

Sherwood Anderson

Anderson was a…

short story writer, novelist, essayist

who worked as a business owner, the writer and newspaper editor 

anderson 

-uses of direct authorial address to the reader

-uses a circular, not linear, narrative structure: “ends where it begins”

-characterization more important than style

-simply style and vocabulary: common words of daily speech

-images drawn from nature

-episodic plot

Characteristics of Anderson’s work

episodic plot

a series of episodes/events that are loosely connected to one another by a common them or character,

-loneliness

-psychological fragmentation

-search for beauty and wholeness

-misunderstood, outsider individuals and the anger/violence they are subjected to in society

-failure of absolute truth

-the degeneration of communal bonds between people

-importance of dreams, idealism and fantasy

common Anderson topics

I’m not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all…no, I do not weep at the world—I am to busy sharpening my oyster knife

Hurston

who began publishing their stories in the 1920’s

Hurston

who gained financial support from several white New York patrons; one key writes of the Harlem renaissance; one of the shapes of the black literary and cultural movements of the 1920’s

Hurtson

-narrative often combines vernacular/southern dialect of everyday African Americans through their dialogue

-concerned with issues of racial and gender identity

- encourages women to rise above the burdens placed upon them by men and realize their potential

-records the female growth possible in relationships with supportive black men

-depicts the dangers to black women’s identity in relationship with oppressive black men; and the self-sacrifices required in order for women to break free

characteristics of Hurston’s work