Until about two decades ago, most anthologies of short stories were comprised primarily of fiction by writers from North America and Europe; moreover, those stories were written predominantly by men of the majority culture. In the intervening years, scholars, teachers, editors, and readers have gained awareness of what has been missing in such selective collections: gender inclusiveness and cultural multiplicity. Editors of anthologies have begun to include more writing by women and writers of minority ethnic, if not geographical, origins.
The first edition of Worlds of Fiction, published in 1993, was conceived with the ambitious goal of extending the parameters of a short-fiction anthology to encompass fiction written by authors from areas of the world that are still only nominally (if at all) represented in most short-story anthologiesAfrica, Asia, Latin America, and the Arabic worldas well as to include more ethnic minority voices from within the United States and more stories by women. This second edition reflects the same principles of selection. Moreover, in this new century and new millennium, we are more aware than ever of the need for increased cross-cultural awareness and understanding. Yet it is obviously impossible to achieve full geographical representativeness, even in an anthology of this size. Of the 113 stories included in this second edition of Worlds of Fiction, approximately one-third are by writers of major geographical areas outside of North America and Europe, while the rest are by North American and European writers. Twenty-five stories are new to this edition, including five by authors from countries or regions not previously represented: Cristina Peri Rossi, Uruguay; Veronique Tadjo, Ivory Coast; Haldun Taner, Turkey; Yvonne Vera, Zimbabwe; and Niaz Zaman, Bangladesh. This second edition also reflects an increase in the number of stories by women, including (in addition to the writers from South America, Africa, and South Asia named above) several modern classicsKate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," Virginia Woolf's "Kew Gardens," and Tillie Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing"as well as stories by Angela Carter, Jamaica Kincaid, Lorrie Moore, and Toni Morrison. To keep things interesting, we have substituted different stories by a cross-section of the classical writers whose fiction appeared in the previous edition, including Sherwood Anderson, Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, E Scott Fitzgerald, Nadine Gordimer, Ernest Hemingway, Henry James, Franz Kafka, Doris Lessing, and Edith Wharton.
One change from the first edition is the omission from this second edition of novellas by Kate Chopin (The Awakening) and Mulk Raj Anand (Untouchable) to make space for more stories in a more compact volume. Students and teachers will find Chopin's novella readily available in a number of editions and Anand's in at least one. It is our hope that readers whose interest is stimulated by the stories by less-familiar writers anthologized here will seek out their other published works, including longer narratives. The headnotes include the titles of other works by each author to aid in this endeavor.
Worlds of Fiction for the first time may feel somewhat uncertain about how to approach stories by unfamiliar writers from cultures and areas not frequently considered by most American readers, we continue to include in the headnote for each story biographical information as well as (where appropriate) suggestions for ways to understand a particular narrative within its cultural context. For a fuller discussion of reading with an enlarged cultural perspectiveand for a fuller explanation of the guiding principles of this anthologywe urge you to read the Introduction that follows this Preface, which provides a close reading and interpretation of the story "Black Girl" by Senegalese writer Sembene Ousmane.
As in the first edition, the primary organization for this second edition is alphabetical by author's name, an arrangement that we believe is the most accessible for readers to locate (and also to discover) particular authors. We abide by traditional cultural usage concerning the alphabetical ordering of authors' names. For example, in Japan and China, a person's surname generally precedes his or her given name. Hence Mishima Yukio (a frequently anthologized Japanese author whose name is typically reversed, English style) still appearsalthough surname firstamong the Ms, and Akutagawa Ryunosuke appears among the As. Many Hispanic surnames are composed of both parents' family names; hence, Garcia and Vargas are not the middle names of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa (respectively) but the first of two-part surnames and thus the ones used for correct reference to the authors as well as for alphabetization. Accordingly, Gabriel Garcia Marquez appears among the Gs and Mario Vargas Llosa appears among the Vs.
In addition to the primary alphabetical Table of Contents, which includes a thumbnail description of each story, an alternative Geographical Table of Contents situates authors within their geographical contexts, and a Thematic Table of Contents features topical groupings of stories to stimulate comparative and cross-cultural thinking as well as ideas for writing. Questions are posed at the end of each story to guide readers in their consideration of major themes and ideas.
We hope that by offering an inviting mixture of recognizable and refreshingly unfamiliar authors and stories from around the world, this second edition of Worlds of Fiction will continue to stretch our readers' aesthetic imaginations as well as their global awareness and cross-cultural understanding.
We appreciate the advice of the following reviewers of this second edition: Dorothy G. Clark, Loyola Marymount University; Jacqueline Murphy, Rosemont College; C. Jenise Williamson, Bowie State University; and Judith Brodhead, North Central College. We are also grateful for the support and assistance of Carrie Brandon, senior acquisitions editor at Prentice Hall, Kari Callaghan Mazzola of Big Sky Composition, and Mary Dalton-Hoffman.
Roberta Rubenstein
Charles R. Larson