num_pages: 192
description: Studies in Short Fiction Series Editors: Gary Scharnhorst, University of New Mexico Eric Haralson, State University of New York at Stonybrook The coverage offered in Twayne's Studies in Short Fiction series extends beyond author's written works to discuss the writer's personal life taken from interviews, essays, memoirs, and other biographical material; the critical reception to his or her work; and an overview of how the subject's output fits into the larger world of literature. Each volume is designed as a complete and self-contained companion to a particular writer s short fiction, and will invigorate any reading of the writer's works. Further enhancing its value as a reference work, each volume contains a chronology, selected bibliography, and an index, and library bindings with cloth covers insure maximum longevity. Charles W. Chesnutt's reputation as a master of the short story has only recently begun to recover the stature that was accorded him shortly after the publication of his collections The Conjure Woman and The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line (both in 1899). One of the most revered African-American writers of his day (he was also a novelist, essayist, and diarist), Chesnutt in his brief career distinguished himself primarily with his dialect-based tales and his post-Civil War urban dramas. In this historically rich analysis of Chesnutt's short fiction, Henry B. Wonham argues that the writer explored the causes and effects of the prevasive influences of "the color line" more subtly and creatively than any of his contemporaries, black or white. In discussing both the dialect and nondialect tales, Wonham concludes that Chesnutt's true genius for expressing the racial dynamics of the era he named "Post-Bellum Pre-Harlem" emerges most clearly in his short fiction. The volume includes Chesnutt's journal excerpts and several essays, plus essays by William Dean Howells and other,- more contemporary critics of the story form. Highly recommended for academic, public, and school libraries. CHOICE Twayne s Studies in Short Fiction series offers concise, sensitive surveys of the works of important practitioners of the short story. Booklist Twayne Publishers has done it again. These handsome volumes should be considered not only for the college library, but also for students, teachers, and devotees of the short story. Studies in Short Fiction
language: English
title: Charles W. Chesnutt: A Study of the Short Fiction
titlecomplete: Charles W. Chesnutt: A Study of the Short Fiction (Twayne's Studies in Short Fiction)
publisher: Twayne Publishers