A Dubose Heyward Reader

by Heyward, Du Bose; Hutchisson, James M.; Hutchisson, James M.

• ISBN13: 9780820324852
• ISBN10: 082032485X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr

Summary

DuBose Heyward (1885-1940) was a central figure in both the Charleston and the Southern Renaissance. His influence extended to the Harlem Renaissance as well. However, Heyward is often remembered simply as the author ofPorgy, the 1925 novel about the poorest black residents of Charleston, South Carolina.Porgy--the novel and its stage versions--has probably done more to shape views worldwide of African American life in the South than any twentieth-century work besidesGone with the Wind. This volume acquaints readers with writings by Heyward that have been overshadowed byPorgy, and it also plumbs the complex sensibilities of the man behind that popular and enduring creation.James M. Hutchisson's introduction relates aspects of Heyward's life to his creative growth and his gradual shift from staunch social conservatism to a liberal (though never revolutionary) advocacy of black rights. The reader collects ten essays by Heyward on topics ranging from an aesthetics of African American art to the history of Charleston. Heyward's poetry is represented by eighteen pieces from the collectionsCarolina Chansons,Skylines and Horizons, andJasbo Brown and Selected Poems. Also included are three song lyrics Heyward wrote for the operaPorgy and Bess. The sampling of Heyward's fiction includes the stories "The Brute" andThe Half Pint Flaskand excerpts from the novelsPorgy,Mamba's Daughters, andPeter Ashley.Here is an ideal introduction to a figure whose inner conflicts were closely tied to those of his beloved South: struggles between privilege and poverty, black and white, and art for the few versus art for the masses.

Author Biography

James M. Hutchisson is a professor of English at The Citadel. His books include DuBose Heyward: A Charleston Gentleman and the World of Porgy and Bess and The Rise of Sinclair Lewis, 1920-1930.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xiii
List of Abbreviations Used in the Text	xv
Introduction	xvii
CRITICAL WRITINGS
``Poetry South''	3	(8)
Hervey Allen
Preface to Carolina Chansons	11	(2)
Hervey Allen
``And Once Again---the Negro''	13	(4)
Foreword to the Year Book of the Poetry Society of South Carolina (1923)	17	(5)
``The New Note in Southern Literature''	22	(5)
``The American Negro in Art''	27	(7)
``The Negro in the Low-Country''	34	(12)
``Porgy and Bess Return on Wings of Song''	46	(6)
``Dock Street Theatre''	52	(5)
``Charleston: Where Mellow Past and Present Meet''	57	(18)
POETRY
From Carolina Chansons	75	(24)
``Silences''	75	(2)
``The Pirates''	77	(8)
``The Last Crew''	85	(9)
``Modern Philosopher''	94	(1)
``Gamesters All''	94	(4)
``Dusk''	98	(1)
From Skylines and Horizons	99	(14)
``Your Gifts''	99	(1)
``A Yoke of Steers''	100	(1)
``The Mountain Woman''	101	(1)
``The Mountain Preacher''	101	(2)
``Black Christmas''	103	(1)
``New England Landscape''	103	(1)
``Suffrage''	104	(1)
``Weariness''	105	(1)
``Buzzard Island''	105	(1)
``Chant for an Old Town''	106	(7)
From Jasbo Brown and Selected Poems	113	(7)
``Jasbo Brown''	113	(6)
``Prodigal''	119	(1)
From Porgy and Bess	120	(13)
``Summertime''	120	(1)
``My Man's Gone Now''	120	(1)
``A Woman Is a Sometime Thing''	121	(4)
FICTION
``The Brute''	125	(8)
From Porgy	133	(62)
Catfish Row and the Murder of Robbins	133	(13)
Porgy, Bess, and Sportin' Life	146	(9)
The Hurricane	155	(14)
Porgy's Heroism and His Loss	169	(12)
The Half Pint Flask	181	(14)
From Mamba's Daughters: A Novel of Charleston	195	(41)
Hagar and Bluton	195	(9)
Lissa and the Black Elite	204	(26)
Lissa's Triumph	230	(6)
From Peter Ashley	236	(25)
Peter's Conflicted Identity	236	(10)
The Slave Market	246	(15)
Emendations in the Copy-Texts	261	(4)
Notes	265	(24)
Index	289