Creativity and Place in the Short Stories of Edward P. Jones

This article examines the topic of place and creativity in two short story collections by Edward P. Jones: Lost in the City (1992) and All Aunt Hagar’s Children (2006). Both works explore the experience of African Americans in Washington D.C. While Washington is the central setting where both collections take place, many stories take the reader to other places; some of these are real such the American South while others are imaginary and associated with creativity and artistry. Three main spaces stand out: Washington D.C., the South and the imaginary spaces that are sites of creativity and imagination. The third of these spaces, that of creativity and imagination, is the focus of this study though still making references to the first and the second places. In the space of artistic creativity, through distinct narrative strategies, these stories create a space in which characters escape the fatalism of history that imprison many other characters in both Washington and the South. This article shows how both cycles strategically serves to create, through various and diverse short narratives, different motifs and strategic narrative means, a world that is more complex than it appears.