Understanding Edward P. Jones / James W. Coleman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Coleman, James W. (James Wilmouth), 1946-2019, author.

Series:

Understanding contemporary American literature.

Understanding contemporary American literature

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jones, Edward P--Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (135 pages).

Edition:

1st ed.

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2016

Place of Publication:

Columbia, South Carolina : University of South Carolina Press, 2016.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"In Understanding Edward P. Jones, James W. Coleman analyzes Jones's award-winning works as well as the significant influences that have shaped his craft. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Jones has made that city and its African American community the subject of or background for most of his fiction. Though Jones's first work was published in 1976, his career developed slowly. While he worked for two decades as a proofreader and abstractor, Jones published short fiction in such periodicals as Essence, the New Yorker, and Paris Review. His first collection, Lost in the City, won the PEN/Hemingway Award, and subsequent books, including The Known World and All Aunt Hagar's Children, received similar accolades, including the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Following an overview of Jones's life, influences, and career, Coleman provides an introduction to the technique of Jones's fiction, which he likens to a tapestry, woven of intricate, varied, and sometimes disparate elements. He then analyzes the formal structure, themes, and characters of The Known World and devotes a chapter each to the short story collections Lost in the City and All Aunt Hagar's Children. His discussion of these volumes focuses on Jones's narrative technique; the themes of family, community, and broader tradition; and the connections through which the stories in each volume collectively create a thematic whole. In his final chapter, Coleman assesses Jones's encompassing outlook that sees African American life in distinct periods but also as a historical whole, simultaneously in the future, the past, and the present. "-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

Series Editor's Preface

Chapter 1 Understanding Edward P. Jones

Chapter 2 Meaning, Structure, and Story in The Known World

Chapter 3 The Known World's Characters

Chapter 4 The Stories of Lost in the City

Chapter 5 The Stories of All Aunt Hagar's Children

Chapter 6 Jones's Vision and Its Development

Notes

Bibliography

Index

A

B

C

D

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

W

Y.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781611176452

161117645X

OCLC:

951749893