| Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination Contributor(s): Morrison, Toni (Author) |
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ISBN: 0679745424 ISBN-13: 9780679745426 Publisher: Vintage OUR PRICE: $14.40 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: July 1993 Annotation: The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Beloved and "Jazz now gives us a learned, stylish, and immensely persuasive work of literary criticism that promises to change the way we read American literature even as it opens a new chapter in the American dialogue on race. Toni Morrison's brilliant discussions of the "Africanist" presence in the fiction of Poe, Melville, Cather, and Hemingway leads to a dramatic reappraisal of the essential characteristics of our literary tradition. She shows how much the themes of freedom and individualism, manhood and innocence, depended on the existence of a black population that was manifestly "unfree--and that came to serve white authors as embodiments of their own fears and desires. Written with the artistic vision that has earned Toni Morrison a pre-eminent place in modern letters, Playing in the Dark will be avidly read by Morrison admirers as well as by students, critics, and scholars of American literature. "By going for the American literary jugular...she places her arguments...at the very heart of contemporary public conversation about what it is to be authentically and originally American. [She] boldly...reimagines and remaps the possibility of America." "--Chicago Tribune "Toni Morrison is the closest thing the country has to a national writer." "The New York Times Book Review |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | American - African American - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - Social Science | Discrimination & Race Relations |
| Dewey: 810.9 |
| LCCN: 92050581 |
| Lexile Measure: 1260 |
| Physical Information: 0.4" H x 5.1" W x 7.9" (0.20 lbs) 112 pages |
| Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - African American |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: An immensely persuasive work of literary criticism that opens a new chapter in the American dialogue on race--and promises to change the way we read American literature. Morrison shows how much the themes of freedom and individualism, manhood and innocence, depended on the existence of a black population that was manifestly unfree--and that came to serve white authors as embodiments of their own fears and desires. According to the Chicago Tribune, Morrison reimagines and remaps the possibility of America. Her brilliant discussions of the Africanist presence in the fiction of Poe, Melville, Cather, and Hemingway leads to a dramatic reappraisal of the essential characteristics of our literary tradition. Written with the artistic vision that has earned the Nobel Prize-winning author a pre-eminent place in modern letters, Playing in the Dark is an invaluable read for avid Morrison admirers as well as students, critics, and scholars of American literature. |