Racial discourse and cosmopolitanism in twentieth-century African American writing / by Tania Friedel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Friedel, Tania, 1973-

Series:

Studies in African American history and culture.

Studies in African American history and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

American literature.

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

Cosmopolitanism in literature.

Race in literature.

African Americans--Intellectual life--20th century.

African Americans.

African Americans in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (425 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York ; London : Routledge, 2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book engages cosmopolitanism-a critical mode which moves beyond cultural pluralism by simultaneously privileging difference and commonality-in order to examine its particular deployment in the work of several African American writers. Deeply influenced and inspired by W. E. B. Du Bois, the writers closely examined in this study-Jean Toomer, Jessie Fauset, Langston Hughes and Albert Murray-have advanced cosmopolitanism to meet its own theoretical principals in the contested arena of racial discourse while remaining integral figures in a larger tradition of cosmopolitan thought. Rather t

Contents:

STUDIES IN AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE; Contents; Credit Lines; Acknowledgments; Introduction; Chapter One Cane's Betrayal and Jean Toomer's Untethered Universalism; "THIS NEW AMERICAN RACE": MISCEGENATION AS SOLUTION; "FACING" THE SOUTH: MISCEGENATION AS DIFFICULT YET CREATIVE TENSION; THE BETRAYAL OF CANE: FROM HARMONY TO DISSONANCE; "THE WHOLE THING LINKED AND ORGANIC": MODERNITY, FRAGMENTATION AND THE DESIRE FOR WHOLENESS; "MANKIND UNITED": TOOMER'S FLIGHTS OF UNIVERSALIST FANCY

Chapter Two The "Interminable Puzzles" of Race, Class and Gender in the Novels of Jessie Redmon Fauset"LIFE AT ITS BEST IS A GRAND CORRECTIVE":13 STRUGGLING FOR BALANCE; "LOOK HERE, THIS IS WHAT A MIXTURE OF BLACK AND WHITE REALLY MEANS!": MERGING PRINCIPLE WITH INDIVIDUAL DESIRE; "UNPERTURBED BY THE WORLD'S STANDARD OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES": AN INCIDENTAL MORAL; "SHE WAS A GIRL WITHOUT A COUNTRY ... DEPRIVED OF HER RACIAL BIRTHRIGHT": THE RAVAGES OF THE COLOR LINE; Chapter Three The Aesthetics of Particularity and the Politics of Integration; AESTHETIC IDEALISM AND SOCIAL RELEVANCE

RETICENCE AND INDIRECTION: THE MODERNIST AESTHETICS OF THE WAYS OF WHITE FOLKSLAUGHING TO KEEP FROM CRYING: PRIMITIVISM AND PATRONAGE IN THE WAYS OF WHITE FOLKS; HUGHES'S COSMOPOLITANISM AND COMMON GROUND; Chapter Four The Fine Art Tradition of Albert Murray; "ELEGANT IMPROVISATIONS": ELITISM AND A TRAGICOMIC SENSIBILITY; "LITERARY COSMOPOLITANISM" AND "THE IDIOMATIC PARTICULARS OF A BROWN-SKIN BOY FROM ALABAMA"; COUNTERSTATING SOCIAL SCIENCE FICTION: RECENTERING BLACKNESS IN AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY; Notes; Selected Bibliography; PRIMARY SOURCES; SECONDARY SOURCES; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-135-89329-2

1-281-06430-0

9786611064303

0-203-93038-X

9780203930380

OCLC:

183707774