FRAILE, Ana María (Ed.), Richard Wright's Native Son. Amsterdam/New York, NY, 2007, XXIV, 233 pp.
Pb: 978-90-420-2297-3
Coinciding with the preparations for the celebration in 2008 of Richard Wright‚s 100th birthday, this new collection of critical essays on Native Son attests to the importance and endurance of Wright's controversial work. The eleven essays collected in this volume engage the objective of Rodopi's Dialogue Series by creating multidirectional conversations in which senior and younger scholars interact with each other and with previous scholars who have weighed in on the novel's import. Speaking from distant corners of the world, the contributors to this book reflect an international interest in Wright‚s unique combination of literary strategies and social aims.
Contents
General Editor's Preface
Introduction
Richard Wright and the Reception of His Work
Caleb CORKERY: Richard Wright and His White Audience: How the Author's Persona Gave Native Son Historical Significance
Philip GOLDSTEIN: From Communism to Black Studies and Beyond: The Reception of Richard Wright's Native Son
Gendered Textualities
Yvonne ROBINSON JONES: Sexual Diversity in Richard Wright's Characterization of Bigger Thomas: Homo-socialism, Homo-eroticism, and the Feminine
Carol E. HENDERSON: Notes from a Native Daughter: The Nature of Black Womanhood in Native Son Spatial Dynamics
Babacar M'BAYE: Slavery and Africa in Native Son and Black Power: A Transnationalist Interpretation
Herman BEAVERS: Vortical Blues: Turbulence, Disorder, and the Emplotment of Surplus Meaning in Native Son
A Polyphony of Genres
Ana María FRAILE-MARCOS: Native Son's "ideology of form": The (African) American Jeremiad and American Exceptionalism
Heather Duerre HUMANN: Genre in/and Wright's Native Son
Carme MANUEL: Bigger's "Rebellious Complaint": Biblical Imagery in Native Son
Native Son Beyond the Page
Raphaël LAMBERT: From Page to Screen: A Comparative Study of Richard Wright‚s Native Son and Its Two Film Adaptations
James Braxton PETERSON: The Hate U Gave (T.H.U.G.): Reflections on the Bigger Figures in Present Day Hip Hop Culture
Notes on Contributors
Index