Richard Wright's Black Boy (American Hunger) A Casebook

by Andrews, William L.; Taylor, Douglas

• ISBN13: 9780195157727
• ISBN10: 0195157729
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-06-12
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

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.

Author Biography

William L. Andrews is E. Maynard Adams Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Douglas Taylor is Assistant Professor of English and African American studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

Table of Contents

Introduction 3
WILLIAM L. ANDREWS AND DOUGLAS TAYLOR
Part I Interview
This, Too, Is America	25	(8)
CHARLES J. ROLO
Part II Contemporary Critical Responses
Richard Wright Looks Back: Harsh, Forbidding Memories of Negro Childhood and Youth	33	(4)
W. E. BURGHARDT DU BOIS
A Tragic Situation	37	(4)
LIONEL TRILLING
Portrait of a Typical Negro?	41	(4)
MARY MCCARTHY
Richard Wright's Blues	45	(18)
RALPH ELLISON
Part III Scholarly and Critical Assessments
The Metamorphosis of Richard Wright's Black Boy	63	(18)
JANICE THADDEUS
From Experience to Eloquence: Richard Wright's Black Bay as Art	81	(20)
CHARLES T. DAVIS
Literacy and Ascent: Richard Wright's Black Boy	101	(12)
ROBERT B. STEPTO
An Apprenticeship to Life and Art: Narrative Design in Wright's Black Boy	113	(18)
JOHN O. HODGES
Creation of the Self in Richard Wright's Black Boy	131	(18)
YOSHINOBU HAKUTANI
"Shouting Curses": The Politics of "Bad" Language in Richard Wright's Black Boy	149	(22)
JENNIFER H. POULOS
Richard Wright: "Wearing the Mask"	171	(20)
TIMOTHY ADAMS
The Horror and the Glory: Richard Wright's Portrait of the Artist in Black Bay and American Hunger	191	(18)
HORACE A. PORTER
Suggested Reading	209