Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Wideman, John Edgar - John Bennion (essay date Spring/Summer 1986)

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John Bennion (essay date Spring/Summer 1986)

SOURCE: "The Shape of Memory in John Edgar Wideman's Sent for You Yesterday," in Black American Literature Forum, Vol. 20, Nos. 1-2, Spring/Summer, 1986, pp. 143-50.

[Bennion is an American educator and critic. In the following essay, he illustrates the role memory plays in shaping the narrative of Sent for You Yesterday.]

Wideman's Sent for You Yesterday has a nontraditional form; the stories of Cassina Way sit "timeless, intimidating, fragile." The plot structure is nonlinear, with time looping rhythmically and point of view shifting rapidly. Readers know about events before they happen; they experience scenes through one character, then reexperience them through another; time moves forward and backward until the characters' comings and goings merge. In addition, deeply introspective language, repeated metaphors, and symbiotic relationships between living and dead characters...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. James W. Coleman (essay date March 1985)
   2. Jacqueline Berben (essay date Fall 1985)
   3. John Bennion (essay date Spring/Summer 1986)
   4. Gary Dretzka (review date 29 November 1987)
   5. Harold Jaffe (review date March-April 1988)
   6. Matthew Wilson (essay date March 1990)
   7. John Edgar Wideman with Charles H. Rowell (interview date Winter 1990)
   8. Jacqueline Berben (essay date April-June 1991)
   9. Ashraf H. A. Rushdy (essay date Fall 1991)
   10. Jan Clausen (essay date Spring 1992)
   11. Michael Gorra (review date June 14 1992)
   12. Sven Birkerts (review date 13 and 20 July 1992)
   13. John Edgar Wideman with Jessica L. Lustig (interview date Fall 1992)
   14. James Robert Saunders (essay date December 1992)
   15. Mel Watkins (review date 13 November 1994)
   16. Mark Shechner (review date March/April 1995)
   17. Sanford Pinsker (review date Spring 1995)
   18. Paul West (review date 29 September 1996)
   19. Gene Seymour (review date 28 October 1996)
   20. Sven Birkerts (review date 3 November 1996)
   21. Joyce Carol Oates (review date 27 March 1997)
   22. Michael Wood (review date 27 November 1997)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright