Richard Wright's Black boy (American hunger) : a casebook / edited by William L. Andrews, Douglas Taylor.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Andrews, William L., 1946-

Taylor, Douglas Edward.

Series:

Casebooks in criticism

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wright, Richard, 1908-1960. Black boy.

Wright, Richard.

Wright, Richard, 1908-1960.

Authors, American--Biography--History and criticism.

Authors, American.

Authors, American--Biography.

African American authors--Biography--History and criticism.

African American authors.

African American authors--Biography.

African American youth--Biography--History and criticism.

African American youth.

Wright, Richard, 1908-1960--Childhood and youth.

Autobiography.

African American youth--Biography.

Physical Description:

viii, 210 pages ; 21 cm.

Other Title:

Black boy (American hunger)

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2003.

Summary:

This casebook gathers together the most important critical responses to Richard Wright's autobiography. It includes a 1945 interview with Richard Wright, contemporary reviews of Black Boy written by W.E.B. Du Bois, Lionel Trilling, Mary McCarthy, and Ralph Ellison, and eight critical essays. These essays address a range of topics including the circumstances of the book's original publication in 1945; the relationship between the novel and Wright's actual biography; the African-American autobiographical tradition; the influences of various writers and literary movements on Black Boy; and the impact of African-American vernacular and oral performance on Wright's autobiography.

Contents:

Part I Interview

This, Too, Is America / Charles J. Rolo 25

Part II Contemporary Critical Responses

Richard Wright Looks Back: Harsh, Forbidding Memories of Negro Childhood and Youth / W. E. Burghardt Du Bois 33

A Tragic Situation / Lionel Trilling 37

Portrait of a Typical Negro? / Mary Mccarthy 41

Richard Wright's Blues / Ralph Ellison 45

Part III Scholarly and Critical Assessments

The Metamorphosis of Richard Wright's Black Boy / Janice Thaddeus 63

From Experience to Eloquence: Richard Wright's Black Boy as Art / Charles T. Davis 81

Literacy and Ascent: Richard Wright's Black Boy / Robert B. Stepto 101

An Apprenticeship to Life and Art: Narrative Design in Wright's Black Boy / John O. Hodges 113

Creation of the Self in Richard Wright's Black Boy / Yoshinobu Hakutani 131

"Shouting Curses": The Politics of "Bad" Language in Richard Wright's Black Boy / Jennifer H. Poulos 149

Richard Wright: "Wearing the Mask" / Timothy Adams 171

The Horror and the Glory: Richard Wright's Portrait of the Artist in Black Boy and American Hunger / Horace A. Porter 191.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 209-210).

ISBN:

0195157710

0195157729

OCLC:

50722238