Description
Hailed as 'the father of black literature in the twentieth century', Richard Wright was an iconoclast, an intellectual of towering stature, whose multidisciplinary erudition rivals only that of W. E. B. Du Bois. This collection captures Wright's immense power, which has made him a beacon for writers across decades, from the civil rights era to today. Individual essays examine Wright's art as central to his intellectual life and shed new light on his classic texts - Native Son and Black Boy. Other essays turn to his short fiction, and non-fiction as well as his lesser-known work in journalism and poetry, paying particular attention to manuscripts in Wright's archive - unpublished letters and novels, plans for multivolume works - that allow us to see the depth and expansiveness of his aesthetic and political vision. Exploring how Wright's expatriation to France facilitated a broadening of this vision, contributors challenge the idea that expatriation led to Wright's artistic decline.
Shows Wright's art was intrinsic to his politics, grounding his exploration of the intersections between race, gender, and class.
About the Author
Glenda R. Carpio is Professor of African and African American Studies and English at Harvard University, Massachusetts. She is the author of Laughing Fit to Kill: Black Humor in the Fictions of Slavery (2008). She coedited African American Literary Studies: New Texts, New Approaches, New Challenges (2011) with Professor Werner Sollors and is currently at work on a book tentatively titled Migrant Aesthetics, a study of contemporary immigrant fiction.
Reviews
'This is a welcome addition to the scholarship on Wright (1908-60), especially in that it attempts to revise Wright's literary legacy ... All the essays are thoughtful and well researched. Two of the more outstanding submissions are Kathryn Roberts's 'Outside Joke: Humorlessness and Masculinity in Richard Wright' and Ernest Julius Mitchell's 'Tenderness in Early Richard Wright'. These essays reframe Wright's intentions and explode long-held myths of his views on gender and sexuality ... Highly Recommended' A. S. Newson-Horst, Choice
Book Information
ISBN 9781108469234
Author Glenda R. Carpio
Format Paperback
Page Count 264
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 390g
Dimensions(mm) 228mm * 151mm * 15mm
Shows Wright's art was intrinsic to his politics, grounding his exploration of the intersections between race, gender, and class.
About the Author
Glenda R. Carpio is Professor of African and African American Studies and English at Harvard University, Massachusetts. She is the author of Laughing Fit to Kill: Black Humor in the Fictions of Slavery (2008). She coedited African American Literary Studies: New Texts, New Approaches, New Challenges (2011) with Professor Werner Sollors and is currently at work on a book tentatively titled Migrant Aesthetics, a study of contemporary immigrant fiction.
Reviews
'This is a welcome addition to the scholarship on Wright (1908-60), especially in that it attempts to revise Wright's literary legacy ... All the essays are thoughtful and well researched. Two of the more outstanding submissions are Kathryn Roberts's 'Outside Joke: Humorlessness and Masculinity in Richard Wright' and Ernest Julius Mitchell's 'Tenderness in Early Richard Wright'. These essays reframe Wright's intentions and explode long-held myths of his views on gender and sexuality ... Highly Recommended' A. S. Newson-Horst, Choice
Book Information
ISBN 9781108469234
Author Glenda R. Carpio
Format Paperback
Page Count 264
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 390g
Dimensions(mm) 228mm * 151mm * 15mm
