DOCSLIB.ORG

The Treatment of Racism in the African American Novel of Satire

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Treatment of Racism in the African American Novel of Satire Universität Trier Fachbereich II Anglistik/Amerikanistik (Literaturwissenschaft) The Treatment of Racism in the African American Novel of Satire Schriftliche Prüfungsarbeit zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde Vorgelegt von: Sebastian Fett, M.A. Im Zillgen 47 56321 Rhens 02628/986292 [email protected] Diese Arbeit wurde betreut von: Prof. Dr. Gerd Hurm, Erstkorrektor Prof. Dr. Norbert Platz, Zweitkorrektor 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project would not have been possible without the help of a great number of people. I am deeply indebted to the critical assistance, patience and support of Prof. Dr. Gerd Hurm. Moreover, I would like to send my gratitude to Jan Martin Herbst for his friendship, great sense of humor and helpful proofreading. Most importantly, however, I thank my family and particularly Wolfgang, Maria, Christian, Daniel, and Marie-Christine for their ongoing encouragement and care; and especially Sylvia for helping me to keep my head up and focus on the things that matter the most. 3 To the memory of Winston Napier and Wilhelm J. Fett 4 Table of Contents I. Introduction 6 II. Toward an Outline of Satire 13 2.1 Identifying Satire: Between Wit and Invective 18 2.2 The Transcending Power of Laughter 25 2.3 The Satirist: Moralizing without Morals 29 2.4 From Signifying to Satiric Novel 36 2.5 Subverting (Racist) Social Identity 44 2.6 Passing, Melodrama, and the Birth of the 46 African American Novel of Satire III. Dismantling the Capitalist Machinery: George Schuyler’s 50 Black No More 3.1 The Birth of the African American Novel of Satire 50 3.2 Bridging the Racial Divide 53 3.3 Satiric Estrangement 59 3.4 The Color of Money 62 3.5 Demystifying the “American Dream” 70 3.6 Between Marxism and Misanthropy 78 3.7 Subverting Propaganda 86 3.8 Black No More as “Socially Referential Satire” 91 3.9 Beyond Cultural Specificity 96 IV. Inside the Capitalist Machinery: Charles Wright’s The Wig 102 4.1 The Erosion of Certainty 102 4.2 Lester Jefferson: The Broken Authorial Lens 106 4.3 Reductio Ad Absurdum: Double-Consciousness Revisited 110 5 4.4 Mass Media Manipulation 117 4.5 The Greed Society 126 4.6 The Socioeconomic Machinery at Work 131 4.7 Entropic Satire 139 4.8 Entropy on the Inside 148 4.9 Black Satire 151 V. The Epistemology of Race: Percival Everett’s Erasure 159 5.1 Monk Ellison: The Construction of Reality 159 5.2 Talking the Talk: The Demise of a Family 165 5.3 My Pafology: Between Parody and Satire 170 5.4 Ellison’s Satire: The Author and the Audience 176 5.5 Debunking the Literary World 182 5.6 The Power and Politics of Representation 185 5.7 Television: Broadcasting Binaries 190 5.8 Manufacturing the Raced Author 203 5.9 Everett’s Satire: The Narrator and the Novelist 209 VI. The African American Novel of Satire: 216 The Versatile Weapon VII. Bibliography 222 VIII. Appendix 233 IX. 8.1 Zusammenfassung der Arbeit in deutscher Sprache 233 X. 8.2 Erklärung über die verwendeten Hilfsmittel 236 6 I. Introduction No tyrant, no tyrannous idea ever came crashing to earth but it was first wounded with the shafts of satire: no free man, no free idea ever rose to the heights but it endured them. It is not that men love to roll in the mud, but that they know how, out of their agony and bloody sweat, truth and beauty are forged, and no falseness may be set up in their stead. It touches their honour, and to defend it they have no sharper weapon than laughter and ridicule.1 In light of Gilbert Cannan’s brief summary of satire’s function and approach, the question of why the African American community would resort to it in its ongoing struggles with racism seems all but answered. Yet, the versatile nature of satire is much more complex and elusive than the above quote suggests. From their everyday encounters with satire, most people know that it can be fierce and unforgiving, witty and ambiguous, and everything in between. One could argue that satire’s manifestations are as numerous as the subjects it confronts. Such diversity of satiric guises explains the considerable amount of secondary literature the field of satire has generated over time. Countless essays and books have been written on satire and many a critical argument has been fought over satire’s delicate relationships with related concepts such as comedy, irony, and wit.2 Considering the sheer volume of pages contributed to the subject, one might assume the definitions of satire and its various components have been sufficiently determined. Following an assumption of this nature, one may then ask why the presence of the African American satiric novel demands a thorough revision of the aforementioned sources. To begin with, the disparity between different definitions and conceptions of satire is not to be underestimated. Especially questions regarding satire’s generic or modal nature and its didactic qualities have received much controversial attention. Furthermore, while the works of Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope have long been viewed as the epitomization of satire, the African American satiric novelist has remained virtually non-existent in literary studies. It 1 Gilbert Cannan, Satire (London: Folcroft, 1974) 13. 2 The enormous amount of secondary literature the phenomenon of satire has produced will be presented and discussed in detail in the second chapter. The key works in the field are the studies by Cannan; Elliott; Feinberg; Knight; Kernan; Weisenburger; Worcester. 7 is thus both necessary and valuable to reconsider the scholarship satire has received in an attempt to delineate the satirist’s playing field and, eventually, to arrive at a functional theoretical framework for the study of the African American satiric novel. In fact, Darryl Dickson-Carr’s 2001 volume African American Satire: The Sacredly Profane Novel is the only monography to date that directly addresses the African American novel of satire as a distinct literary event. In analyzing the treatment of racism in the African American novel of satire, it stands to reason that the results and claims studies on eighteenth century British satire have produced as well as more recent theoretical models of satire cannot be applied inconsiderately to the African American satiric novelist, who approaches his craft from a unique social and artistic position. Suffering from an oppressive sociopolitical system, George Schuyler and his successors operate within the modern and postmodern continuum, an era often perceived as fragmented and inscrutable, to the extent that it has often united men in shared victimhood, and has revealed absolutes, such as truth and meaning, to be unstable or even non- existent.3 In this climate of skepticism and disbelief, readers can hardly expect to encounter undivided figures that embody the popular attributes so commonplace in the satiric works of Pope or Swift. It is out of question that useful clues and universal features of satire, which are crucial to any analysis of the phenomenon, are to be found in the countless studies the phenomenon of satire has generated over the centuries. However, a look at widespread notions and findings on satire justifies the need for reconsideration through the lens of the African American experience. A case in point is Leonard Feinberg’s assertion on the preeminence of amusement in satire. From Feinberg’s perspective, “satire may criticize evil but the didactic elements are incidental, not primary. The essential quality is entertainment.”4 Finding the flaw in Feinberg’s statement does not demand extensive knowledge of either the importance of satire in African American discourse or the destructive power of racism. To presume that the African American satiric novelist can afford the luxury of placing entertainment first in his quarrels with racism is misguided. Furthermore, studies on formal verse satire 3 See Hans Bertens, The Idea of the Postmodern: A History (London: Routledge, 1996). 4 Leonard Feinberg, Introduction to Satire (Ames: Iowa State UP, 1967) 7-8. 8 have led to the notion that the satiric victim must not lack the faculty of conscience. W. H. Auden thus elaborates that satire commonly “flourishes in a homogenous society with a common conception of the moral law, for satirist and audience must agree as to how normal people can be expected to behave, and in times of relative stability and contentment, for satire cannot deal with serious evil and suffering.”5 For any society infested with racism to be referred to as homogenous is questionable at best; for racism vigorously perpetuates a hierarchically heterogeneous social and racial structure. Moreover, that racism does, in fact, qualify as “serious evil and suffering” is by no means dependent on subjective estimation. Ultimately, as the subsequent analysis of three exemplary works will reveal, it is indeed possible for a gifted artist to point satire’s thorns and barbs at such an evil as racism. In addition, it is problematic to identify the African American author as the stiff conservative Robert C. Elliott implies in his studies on the origins of satire. Elliott contests that “the satirist, it is true, claims to be conservative, to be using his art to shore up the foundations of the established order; and insofar as one can place satirists politically, I suspect that a large majority are what would be called conservative.”6 To refute Elliott, one only needs to view Schuyler’s successors who remain victims of a society plagued by racism, and therefore cannot help but launch their satiric darts from the fringes of a society that produces conservative accounts of the life of its members. Finally, a key notion in satiric criticism is summarized by Peter Thorpe, who stresses a satirist’s ambivalence by asserting that “the satirist is secretly attracted by the very target he attacks.”7 To argue that the African American satirist is attracted to racism, among other targets to be identified in the subsequent analyses, is controversial.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Black No More a Novel 1St Edition Ebook
    BLACK NO MORE A NOVEL 1ST EDITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK George Samuel Schuyler | 9780375753800 | | | | | Black No More A Novel 1st edition PDF Book View 2 comments. More Details I found myself going "Oh! Because of its premise, Schuyler can't help but wander unavoidably into mixed message territory. Jul 28, Crystal Starr Light rated it really liked it Shelves: race , classics , ebook. Black No More aligns with Schuyler's long held sentiments towards race in America. When Helen's child is born bi-racial, she blames herself for her undisclosed African-American heritage. Jan 21, Ari rated it it was amazing Shelves: must-read-for-school , read-in See all 3 questions about Black No More…. Chapter 5. A remarkable book written in Now that he is white and a prominent member of a white supremacist organization, Matthew wins Helen's affection and, eventually, her hand in marriage. When he mocks a character, he makes sure to ascribe outrageous physical traits to them. I was anticipating more dept perhaps. Rapper Black Thought is contributing music and lyrics and will appear in the production, originally scheduled to premiere in October Read Harder , Task 9: A book of colonial or postcolonial literature He even named names. Even Marcus Garvey, W. If you can't beat them, turn into them. With their marriage, his dreams have come true and he seals his fate: From now on, he serves the interests of the Knights of Nordica but not entirely at the expense of his own interests. In the South you can't tell over the telephone whether you are talking to a white man or a Negro.
    [Show full text]
  • Necessary Fictions”: Authorship and Transethnic Identity in Contemporary American Narratives
    MILNE, LEAH A., PhD. “Necessary Fictions”: Authorship and Transethnic Identity in Contemporary American Narratives. (2015) Directed by Dr. Christian Moraru. 352 pp. As a theory and political movement of the late 20th century, multiculturalism has emphasized recognition, tolerance, and the peaceful coexistence of cultures, while providing the groundwork for social justice and the expansion of the American literary canon. However, its sometimes uncomplicated celebrations of diversity and its focus on static, discrete ethnic identities have been seen by many as restrictive. As my project argues, contemporary ethnic American novelists are pushing against these restrictions by promoting what I call transethnicity, the process by which one formulates a dynamic conception of ethnicity that cuts across different categories of identity. Through the use of self-conscious or metafictional narratives, authors such as Louise Erdrich, Junot Díaz, and Percival Everett mobilize metafiction to expand definitions of ethnicity and to acknowledge those who have been left out of the multicultural picture. I further argue that, while metafiction is often considered the realm of white male novelists, ethnic American authors have galvanized self-conscious fiction—particularly stories depicting characters in the act of writing—to defy multiculturalism’s embrace of coherent, reducible ethnic groups who are best represented by their most exceptional members and by writing that is itself correct and “authentic.” Instead, under the transethnic model, ethnicity is self-conflicted, forged through ongoing revision and contestation and in ever- fluid responses to political, economic, and social changes. “NECESSARY FICTIONS”: AUTHORSHIP AND TRANSETHNIC IDENTITY IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN NARRATIVES by Leah A. Milne A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Greensboro 2015 Approved by _____________________ Committee Chair ©2015 Leah A.
    [Show full text]
  • Descargar Descargar
    Opción, Año 35, Especial No.22 (2019): 1122-1134 ISSN 1012-1587/ISSNe: 2477-9385 Percival Everett’s creativity in the context of contemporary american literature Inna V. Shchepacheva¹, Olga B. Karasik¹ ¹Kazan Federal University [email protected], [email protected] Yuri V. Stulov² ²Minsk State Linguistic University [email protected] Abstract The article deals with the literary creativity of Percival Everett who is considered to be one of the most accomplished and prolific American writers nowadays via comparative qualitative research methods. As a result, the main peculiarity of Percival Everett’s novels is that the author presents his own vision of American and African American literatures and this way of interpretation is based on postmodernist aesthetics mostly. In conclusion, the creativity of Percival Everett is diverse and it presents itself a combination of new and traditional approaches to the themes of American and African American literatures. Key words: Percival, Everett, novels, American, literature. La creatividad de Percival Everett en el contexto de la literatura estadounidense contemporánea Resumen El artículo trata de la creatividad literaria de Percival Everett, considerado uno de los escritores estadounidenses más exitosos y prolíficos en la actualidad a través de métodos comparativos de investigación cualitativa. Como resultado, la peculiaridad principal de las novelas de Percival Everett es que el autor presenta su propia visión de la literatura estadounidense y afroamericana y esta forma de interpretación se basa principalmente en la estética posmoderna. En Recibido: 10-12-2018 Aceptado: 15-03-2018 1123 Inna V. Shchepacheva et al. Opción, Año 35, Especial No.22 (2019): 1122-1134 conclusión, la creatividad de Percival Everett es diversa y presenta una combinación de enfoques nuevos y tradicionales a los temas de la literatura estadounidense y afroamericana.
    [Show full text]
  • William J. Maxwell Curriculum Vitae August 2021
    William J. Maxwell curriculum vitae August 2021 Professor of English and African and African-American Studies Washington University in St. Louis 1 Brookings Drive St. Louis, MO 63130-4899 U.S.A. Phone: (217) 898-0784 E-mail: [email protected] _________________________________________ Education: DUKE UNIVERSITY, DURHAM, NC. Ph.D. in English Language and Literature, 1993. M.A. in English Language and Literature, 1987. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK, NY. B.A. in English Literature, cum laude, 1984. Academic Appointments: WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS, MO. Professor of English and African and African-American Studies, 2015-. Director of English Undergraduate Studies, 2018- 21. Faculty Affiliate, American Culture Studies, 2011-. Director of English Graduate Studies, 2012-15. Associate Professor of English and African and African-American Studies, 2009-15. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, IL. Associate Professor of English and the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory, 2000-09. Director of English Graduate Studies, 2003-06. Assistant Professor of English and Afro-American Studies, 1994-2000. COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY, WILLIAMSBURG, VA. Visiting Assistant Professor of English, 1996-97. UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND. Assistant (full-time lecturer) in American Literature and Civilization, 1992-94. Awards, Fellowships, and Professional Distinctions: Claude McKay’s lost novel Romance in Marseille, coedited with Gary Edward Holcomb, named one of the ten best books of 2020 by New York Magazine, 2021. Appointed to the Editorial Board of James Baldwin Review, 2019-. Elected Second Vice President (and thus later President) of the international Modernist Studies Association (MSA), 2018; First Vice President, 2019-20; President, 2021-. American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for my 2015 book F.B.
    [Show full text]
  • African Americans in the Military
    African Americans in the Military While the fight for African American civil rights has been traditionally linked to the 1960s, the discriminatory experiences faced by black soldiers during World War II are often viewed by historians as the civil rights precursor to the 1960s movement. During the war America’s dedication to its democratic ideals was tested, specifically in its treatment of its black soldiers. The hypocrisy of waging a war on fascism abroad, yet failing to provide equal rights back home was not lost. The onset of the war brought into sharp contrast the rights of white and black American citizens. Although free, African Americans had yet to achieve full equality. The discriminatory practices in the military regarding black involvement made this distinction abundantly clear. There were only four U.S. Army units under which African Americans could serve. Prior to 1940, thirty thousand blacks had tried to enlist in the Army, but were turned away. In the U.S. Navy, blacks were restricted to roles as messmen. They were excluded entirely from the Air Corps and the Marines. This level of inequality gave rise to black organizations and leaders who challenged the status quo, demanding greater involvement in the U.S. military and an end to the military’s segregated racial practices. Soldiers Training, ca. 1942, William H. Johnson, oil on plywood, Smithsonian American Art Museum Onset of War The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 irrevocably altered the landscape of World War II for blacks and effectively marked the entry of American involvement in the conflict.
    [Show full text]
  • D. H. Lawrence and the Harlem Renaissance
    ‘You are white – yet a part of me’: D. H. Lawrence and the Harlem Renaissance A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2019 Laura E. Ryan School of Arts, Languages and Cultures 2 Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................... 3 Declaration ................................................................................................................. 4 Copyright statement ................................................................................................... 5 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... 6 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 7 Chapter 1: ‘[G]roping for a way out’: Claude McKay ................................................ 55 Chapter 2: Chaos in Short Fiction: Langston Hughes ............................................ 116 Chapter 3: The Broken Circle: Jean Toomer .......................................................... 171 Chapter 4: ‘Becoming [the superwoman] you are’: Zora Neale Hurston................. 223 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 267 Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 271 Word Count: 79940 3
    [Show full text]
  • CLEAGE, PEARL. Pearl Cleage Papers, 1949-2011
    CLEAGE, PEARL. Pearl Cleage papers, 1949-2011 Emory University Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library Atlanta, GA 30322 404-727-6887 [email protected] Collection Stored Off-Site All or portions of this collection are housed off-site. Materials can still be requested but researchers should expect a delay of up to two business days for retrieval. Descriptive Summary Creator: Cleage, Pearl. Title: Pearl Cleage papers, 1949-2011 Call Number: Manuscript Collection No. 1223 Extent: 74.75 linear feet (156 boxes), 12 oversized papers boxes (OP), 4 extra- oversized papers (XOP), 1 oversized bound volume (OBV), AV Masters: 6 linear feet (6 boxes), and 1.41 GB born digital materials (564 files) Abstract: Personal papers of African American novelist and playwright Pearl Cleage including correspondence, manuscript and typescript writings, subject files, professional papers, printed material, photographs, writings by others, and audiovisual material. Language: Materials entirely in English. Administrative Information Restrictions on Access Special restrictions apply: Series 1: Personal journals are closed to researchers until December 2037. Series 2: Due to privacy concerns, some material has been redacted. Series 3: Due to privacy concerns, some material has been redacted. Series 4: Professional papers are closed to researchers until December 2037. Collection stored off-site. Researchers must contact the Rose Library in advance to access this collection. Emory Libraries provides copies of its finding aids for use only in research and private study. Copies supplied may not be copied for others or otherwise distributed without prior consent of the holding repository. Pearl Cleage papers, 1949-2011 Manuscript Collection No.
    [Show full text]
  • Miscegenation and Literary Form in the Plessy Era
    “Our racket’s within th’ law, ain’t it?”: Miscegenation and Literary Form in the Plessy Era Christopher M. Brown* Abstract A rhetoric of strangeness marks so many of the texts of the African American literary tra- dition written during the Plessy era, a strangeness inextricably tied to the law’s effort to maintain the fiction of “separate but equal.” Anti-miscegenation laws, perhaps the most emotionally charged of the many legal attempts to police the color-line, were also some of the most difficult to parse and yet also the most entrenched. And so, it is no surprise that the illogic of the legal predicament in which blacks found themselves was often articulated in literary texts in two related ways: first, through the figure of the miscegenated baby; and second, through the narrative structure of the absurd. This article argues that while the possibility of a baby is usually read to reveal the anxiety of a text’s passing protagonists, in fact many Plessy-era works by African American writers deploy the combination of a trou- bling black baby and the farce of racial taxonomies as a kind of reductio ad absurdum, satirizing the law’s doomed attempts to protect the “purity” of the white race. An assessment of the law’s affective attachment to whiteness reveals the formal mode of the absurd—read through George Schuyler’s 1931 novel Black No More—as a pointed challenge to the ra- tionale underlying segregation as the law of the land. * * * “If then the progeny of the white race be uniformly distinct from that of the black, it may be said to be a law of nature, that a white couple cannot produce a negro or mulatto child.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cambridge Companion to Twenty-First Century American Fiction Edited by Joshua Miller Frontmatter More Information
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-83827-6 — The Cambridge Companion to Twenty-First Century American Fiction Edited by Joshua Miller Frontmatter More Information -- Reading lists, course syllabi, and prizes include the phrase “twenty-first-century American literature,” but no critical consensus exists regarding when the period began, which works typify it, how to conceptualize its aesthetic priorities, and where its geographical boundaries lie. Considerable criticism has been published on this extraordinary era, but little programmatic analysis has assessed comprehensively the literary and critical/theoretical output to help readers navigate the labyrinth of critical pathways. In addition to ensuring broad coverage of many essential texts, The Cambridge Companion to Twenty-First- Century American Fiction offers state-of-the-field analyses of contemporary narrative studies that set the terms of current and future research and teaching. Individual chapters illuminate critical engagements with emergent genres and concepts, including flash fiction, speculative fiction, digital fiction, alternative temporalities, Afro-Futurism, ecocriticism, transgender/queer studies, anti- carceral fiction, precarity, and post-9/11 fiction. . is Associate Professor of English at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Accented America: The Cultural Politics of Multilingual Modernism (2011), editor of The Cambridge Companion to the American Modernist Novel (2015), and coeditor of Languages of Modern Jewish Cultures: Comparative Perspectives (2016). © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-83827-6 — The Cambridge Companion to Twenty-First Century American Fiction Edited by Joshua Miller Frontmatter More Information THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO TWENTY-FIRST- CENTURY AMERICAN FICTION EDITED BY JOSHUA L.
    [Show full text]
  • Social Issues—United States. Updated July 2014. MLA 6Th Edition
    Social Issues—United States. Updated July 2014. MLA 6th edition. Paul Revere Williams Project. Art Museum of the University of Memphis. "200 Negro Workers Walk Off Jobs at BMI Plant Today." Las Vegas Evening Review-Journal Wednesday, October 20 1943, sec. A1:. "2004 Eleven most endangered (La Concha." Preserve Nevada. 2008. 5/6/2008 <http://preservenevada.unlv.edu>. Abrams, Charles. "The Housing Problem and the Negro." Daedalus: Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 95.1 (1966): 64-76. "Abstracts of Papers Presented at the Twenty-Seventh Annual Meeting of the Society of Architectural Historians (Dozier, Richard K. "Black Craftsmen and Architects in History")." Journal of Architectural Historians 33.3 (1974): 225-243. "Ad for Castaic Country Club." California Eagle May 16 1924: 12. "Ad for Insurance Company." Ebony 15.1 (1959): 137. Adams, Michael. "The Incomparable Success of Paul R. Williams." African American Architects in Current Practice. Ed. Jack Travis. 1st ed. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1991. 20-21. "African Church to Build $1 Million Edifice here: 500 Will use $100 Shovels to Break Ground for Center at Ceremony Sunday (AME Church)." Los Angeles Times August 3 1963, sec. 15:. "America's 100 Richest Negroes: Many Solid Gold Millionaires are among Top Moneymakers in Business." Ebony 17.7 (1962): 130-135. Anderson, Susan. "A City Called Heaven: Black Enchantment and Despair in Los Angeles." The City: Los Angeles and Urban Theory at the End of the Twentieth Century. Ed. Allen J. Scott and Edward W. Soja. 1st paperback ed. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996, 1998.
    [Show full text]
  • The Works and Critical Reception of Dorothy West
    University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 8-2005 Renaissance Woman: The Works and Critical Reception of Dorothy West Tamara Jenelle Williamson University of Tennessee - Knoxville Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Williamson, Tamara Jenelle, "Renaissance Woman: The Works and Critical Reception of Dorothy West. " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2005. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/2538 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Tamara Jenelle Williamson entitled "Renaissance Woman: The Works and Critical Reception of Dorothy West." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in English. Miriam Thaggert, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Mary E. Papke, Nancy Goslee Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Tamara Jenelle Williamson entitled “Renaissance Woman: The Works and Critical Reception of Dorothy West.” I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, with a major in English.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethos and African American Literature
    humanities Article Haunt or Home? Ethos and African American Literature Richard Schur Department of Languages and Literature, Drury University, Springfield, MO 65802, USA; [email protected] Received: 21 May 2018; Accepted: 26 July 2018; Published: 10 August 2018 Abstract: The African American rhetorical tradition could be described as a shelter in an alien environment or as a way station on a long journey. A focus on ethos suggests that such a narrow approach to African American literature cannot do justice to these literary texts: how these writers employ images and symbols, craft and deploy examine identities, blend, criticize, and create traditions, explore contemporary issues, and create community. Because of cultural and racist narratives, African Americans could not simply use either the pre-Socratic or Aristotelian approaches to ethos in their fight for social justice. This essay demonstrates how a postclassical approach to ethos that draws on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and is focused on community-building and self-healing is central to the African American literature and rhetoric. Keywords: African American literature; ethos; slave narratives; Phillis Wheatley; Martin Luther King; Malcolm X; W.E.B. Du Bois; Booker T. Washington 1. Introduction In a provocative essay from 1997 entitled, “Home,” Nobel-prize winning author Toni Morrison compares living and writing in the United States as an African American woman with occupying a house rather than a home. For Morrison, cultural memory shapes contemporary action, and her characters cannot escape how America’s racial history has shaped their lives, coloring how they see the world and influencing their interactions with both African Americans and whites.
    [Show full text]