Charles W. Chesnutt

The Goophered Grapevine | Charles W. Chesnutt | Literary Roadhouse Ep 91

Discussion Notes: The Goophered Grapevine

Find this week’s story here: The Goophered Grapevine by Charles W. Chesnutt.

Next week’s story: And It Is My Fault by Janet Towle.

Rated: Explicit.

Our hosts discuss a short story classic from The Atlantic, The Goophered Grapevine by Charles W. Chesnutt. Gerald, Rammy, and Anais could not stand the dialect used to tell the bulk of the story, and Maya valiantly defended the use of such dialect as best she could. While Maya herself admits the dialect is a distraction, she wondered if it served as a preservation of a long gone diction. Perhaps following the old adage ‘if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all’, Rammy and Gerald were unusually quiet on this episode. And finally, the hosts do dissect the representation of black spirituality in fiction, and how author’s intentions color their reception of an author’s work.

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