Themes in Literature/Isolation and Community

In loving memory of Veronica A.Cover • For Contributors • For Readers • Volume I: Isolation and Community • Volume II: Belonging and Exile • Volume III: American Dream-American Nightmare • Contributors • Print version of introductory material right|frameless|401x401px I’m alone in a crowd—e pluribus plures. Far from a family I miss. I’d almost say I’m lonely, but lonely Is worse, I recall, than this. --Geoffrey Brock, Bryant Park at Dusk Preface Authors whose works are discussed in this volume Short fiction Ray Bradbury, "Night Call, Collect" Anton Chekov, "The Bet" Julio Cortázar, "The Southern Thruway" Ken Liu, "The Paper Menagerie" Carmen Maria Machado, "Dream House as Choose your Own Adventure" Oscar Wilde, "The Happy Prince" "The Selfish Giant" Long Fiction Octavia E. Butler, Dawn Kindred Poetry Emily Dickinson, "Much Madness is divinest Sense" "They shut me up in Prose" "The Soul selects her own Society" Langston Hughes, "Let America Be America Again" "Mother to Son" Short film Pierre Ieong, Belonging David Gaddie, Beautiful Dreamer Textual Comparison "The Deluded Self": Machado's "Dream House as Choose your Own Adventure" and Sartre's No Exit