You won't have time for this, probably, but The Tempest is a comedy with a grotesque...
Spike ,'Sleeper'
Natter 58: Let's call Venezuela!
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
It also occurs to me I have no African-American writers.
And August Wilson, the one I'd love most to teach, doesn't fit in to my scheme.
If you can fit Their Eyes Were Watching God in there somewhere, that's a great canonical text. Toni Morrison's Beloved has also been known to show up on AP Lit exams. I have scads of AA Lit references and short stories from teaching the class a few years ago. Let me know if you want to look through any of it.
Beloved is such a slog for me! I mean, I know it's supposed to be wonderful. But I picked it up and put it back down uncompleted at least 3 times.
Christopher Durang is so much fun! And given how beloved he is when it comes to doing silly college theater, I suspect a lot of AP high schoolers would love his stuff too.
He also fits the AP Board's call to teach "a variety of lit from the 16th to 21st century" (paraphrasing) since he's so contemporary.
ETA: BWAH! I'd never been to his homepage before. [link] (It was the "to enter, click on..." part that set off a coughing fit of laughter.)
I love reading this discussion, Especially since I've read/heard (I don't know which) lately of Isabel Allende's latest bio-book. I read Paula on a bus through Slovakia in a fog and remember desperately trying not to cry as a castle came into view. Allende, Marquez, Alvarez, Cisneros and a few other latin authors have a special place for me.
Kat, would any of the short stories by Angela Carter work for what you're looking for?
For Magical Realism, Jilli?