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Biography
Toni Cade Bambara was a native of New York City who devoted
her life to her writing and her social activism. Her causes
ranged from improving the living conditions of minority city
dwellers to creating television documentaries about racial
or social injustice. Like Bambara herself, many of the characters
in her short stories, most often women, were also community
activists who derived strength from storytelling. Bambara's
works include the short-story collections Gorilla, My
Love (1972) and The Sea Birds Are Still Alive (1977)
and the novel The Salt Eaters (1981).
Explorations
In Medley (1977) we can see resemblances between
the form of the story and the improvisations of modern jazz.
But this is fiction, not a musical medley, and as an accomplished
writer, Bambara does respond to, and comment upon, the American
realist tradition in fiction and certain basic expectations
and practices of contemporary storytelling.
1. Locate several moments in which Sweet Pea muses on
the talents of other people as tellers of tales and on
the worth of any story, told badly or well. Why does she
tell us about Hector as a "bad storyteller," but as "an
absolute artist on windows"?
2. How would you describe the overall experience of reading Medley?
How would you compare it to the experience of reading works
by Welty, O'Connor,
or Toomer?
Other sites to consult:
An
appreciation of Bambara by Toni
Morrison, Bambara's editor at Random House. From The
Nation (10/28/96).
In
Praise of Toni Cade Bambara, a brief article
and poem by Alice Lovelace from In Motion Magazine.
Includes a discussion forum.
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