Literary Ambition and the African American Novel

List of contents

Introduction; 1. 'The first Negro novelist': Charles Chesnutt's point of view and the emergence of African American literature; 2. James Weldon Johnson's dream of literary greatness and his groundwork for an African American literary renaissance; 3. The strange literary career of Jean Toomer; 4. Wallace Thurman's judgment and 'this obvious rush toward modernism'; 5. Zora Neale Hurston and the great unwritten; 6. Richard Wright's compromises: radicalism and celebrity as paths to literary freedom; 7. 'Literary to a fault': the singular triumph of Ralph Ellison; Conclusion.

About the author

Michael Nowlin is a specialist in American literature and Chair of the Department of English at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. He is the author of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Racial Angles and the Business of Literary Greatness (2007) and is the editor of editions of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (2007) and Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence (2002). He has also published articles in Modernism/Modernity, American Literature, African American Review, and Studies in American Fiction.

Summary

This book is for readers interested in how the modern African American novel entered and changed the mainstream of American literature. It tells the story of the ambitious, competitive authors who wrote the landmark African American novels while also struggling against the positions they had won as 'Negro authors'.

Product details

• Authors: Michael Nowlin, Michael (University of Victoria Nowlin, Nowlin Michael
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.12.2019
• EAN: 9781108482073
• ISBN: 978-1-108-48207-3
• No. of pages: 265
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; Amerika, Ethnic Studies, Literature - Classics / Criticism, LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General, Literature: history & criticism, Literature: history and criticism, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Cultural & Ethnic Studies / General, Ethnic studies / Ethnicity