Category: american literature

August Wilson’s "Fences" and the American City

With the announcement that Denzel Washington would  be starring in one and producing all ten of August Wilson’s Pittsburgh cycle, I thought it would be fitting to do a brief post on Wilson’s Fences. Plenty of scholars have focused on the failure of the American Dream and the integration of sports in the play; however, I do not want to focus on what Troy … Read More August Wilson’s "Fences" and the American City

James Joyce’s "Dubliners" and Ernest J. Gaines

Last week, I led a discussion on the influence that James Joyce had on Ernest J. Gaines. I have written about this before, briefly, on the Ernest J. Gaines Center’s blog. There, I wrote about the reference to Joyce in Gaines’s A Lesson before Dying. Throughout his career, Gaines has espoused the ways that authors like Joyce provided models for his own writing. He … Read More James Joyce’s "Dubliners" and Ernest J. Gaines

Video Games in the Literature Classroom

Recently, Playing History 2-Slave Trade has received attention here in the U.S. for its depiction of the Middle Passage and the slave trade. The game, developed by Danish company Serious Game drew attention because of section of the game that people have dubbed “Slave Tetris.” Essentially, players must stack Africans into a ship’s hull in preparation for the Middle Passage in a manner similar to the classic … Read More Video Games in the Literature Classroom

Dorothy Allison’s "Bastard Out of Carolina"

It’s been a little while since I read Kaye Gibbon’s Ellen Foster, but I remember the relationship between Starlette and Ellen. A relationship like that does not appear in Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina, but what does exist is the presence of African Americans in a mitigated role as the “other” in relation to the Boatwright family. Two scenes in particular grabbed my … Read More Dorothy Allison’s "Bastard Out of Carolina"

Migration and African American Literature Syllabus

Jacob Lawrence On the Ernest J. Gaines Center’s blog, I posted two syllabi: “The Short Story and Ernest Gaines Syllabus.” and “African American Crime and Detective Fiction.”  Today, I would like to do something similar on my own blog. Instead of having the syllabus center around Gaines or detective fiction, I want to share with you a syllabus I constructed entitled “Migration and African American … Read More Migration and African American Literature Syllabus