The American protest essay and national belonging : addressing division / Brian Norman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Norman, Brian, 1977-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--20th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

Protest literature, American--History and criticism.

Protest literature, American.

American literature--19th century--History and criticism.

Politics and literature--United States--History and criticism.

Politics and literature.

Dissenters in literature.

Identity (Psychology) in literature.

United States.

Physical Description:

x, 222 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2007]

Summary:

The American Protest Essay and National Belonging uncovers a rich tradition of essays by writers who also serve as spokespersons for American social movements throughout the nation's history. Brian Norman demonstrates that the American protest essay is a distinct from that draws from both the European-born personal essay and American political oratory anchored in social movements. He places celebrated twentieth-century writers like James Baldwin, Vine Deloria Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois, Emma Goldman, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, Thomas Pynchon, Adrienne Rich, Gore Vidal, Alice Walker, and Richard Wright among many others in a tradition dating back to the nation's founding. Drawing on feminist and multicultural studies and movements, Norman explains how the protest essay brings particular experiences of exclusion into direct conversation with beliefs in universal equality to offer a story of national belonging that is able to address, rather than repress, division.

Contents:

Introduction: Concerning Division: Allegiance, Renunciation, and National Belonging 1

Chapter 1 Toward an American Protest Essay Tradition 13

Chapter 2 New Declarations of Independence: Three Feminist Re-Visions of a Founding Document 41

Chapter 3 The Addressed and the Redressed: Helen Hunt Jackson's Protest Essay and the Protest Novel Tradition 71

Chapter 4 The Art of Political Advocacy: James Baldwin. American Protest Essayist 87

Chapter 5 Identity Politics, Collective Futures, and the Cross-Essay Conversations of Audre Lorde. Adrienne Rich, and Alice Walker 117

Chapter 6 June Jordan and Transnational American Protest 139

Conclusion: Why the Essay? 155

Appendix Printings of the Combahee River Collective. A Black Feminist Statement (April 1977) 159.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-214) and index.

ISBN:

9780791472354

0791472353

9780791472361

0791472361

OCLC:

77333917