He says to look at Caryl Churchill (though she's British): Cloud 9, Fenn, etc. He says her works tend to defy categorization and would be great to open that discussion. He also says that if you want some late 20th century absurdist comedy, check out Christopher Durang. ND can fill you in more if you're interested.

OH Neil Simon might be good! I wonder if he's considered canonical enough to pass the College Board audit?

Hmm......Neil Simon might be the right fit. I skew towards non American Lit. Then at least it's more rounded out between early modern to contemporary. Of course I am light on 17th and 18th century works. But oh well. Heavy on Victorian. unsurprisingly.

AND foregoing anything not already modern. I mean, I'm not addressing Greek or even, really (unless I do Gawain), Medieval.

I like your grotesque list.

Brighton Beach Memoirs might be a good fit.

Me too! I loved those books. They aren't gothic. Nor victorian. And I still think grotesque is the wrong word. But I'm not sure what the right word is!

I like grotesque. It's an excellent word.

ETA: Have you considered adding Flannery O'Connor's short story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" into your grotesque unit? That would give you another American text.

Kristin, yep. I figured the Misfit is a sort of classic grotesque. And as another secondary, there's always Hunchback of Notre Dame.

I haven't really gotten around to short stories to cram in. And I won't have some for each genre. But Jekyll and Hyde is totally a short story and easy enough to read quickly. Maybe an excerpt from Allende. Bits from The Once and Future King.

And, unsurprisingly, comedy is the category that is hardest to think about. But I guess because it's both the last and also the most subjective.

Kristin beat me to the Flannery O'Connor rec--that's who I think of when I think of grotesque these days.

You won't have time for this, probably, but The Tempest is a comedy with a grotesque...