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The Resource Claude McKay, code name Sasha : queer Black Marxism and the Harlem Renaissance, Gary Edward Holcomb

Claude McKay, code name Sasha : queer Black Marxism and the Harlem Renaissance, Gary Edward Holcomb

Creator
Summary
"Sasha" was the code name adopted by Harlem Renaissance writer Claude McKay (1889-1948) to foil investigations of his life and work. Over a period of two decades, the FBI, U.S. State Department, British police and intelligence, and French law enforcement and colonial authorities took turns harassing McKay, an openly gay, Marxist, Jamaican expatriate who had left the United States and was living in Europe. In this study of four of McKay's texts--the first literary, cultural, and historical analysis to address the multilayered "queer black anarchism" in McKay's writings--Holcomb argues that McKay's "fringe" perspective not only targeted him for investigation but also contributed to a declining literary reputation. Perceived as mystifying and unacceptable because of his dedication to communism, McKay is perplexing and difficult to classify within the traditional constructs of the Harlem Renaissance. The problem that McKay's transnational, aesthetically itinerant writing inevitably has posed is where to locate him. In recent years, access into McKay's work has been transformed by new methods of interpreting the politics of literary texts, the growing significance of transnationality in literary and cultural analysis, and the impact of "queer theory." Holcomb analyzes three of the most important works in McKay's career--the Jazz Age bestseller Home to Harlem, the negritude manifesto Banjo, and the unpublished Romance in Marseille. Holcomb uncovers ways in which Home to Harlem assembles a homefront queer black anarchism, and treats Banjo as a novel that portrays Marxist internationalist sexual dissidence. [Among the most notable contributions to black modernist study, Holcomb's scholarship is the first to assess the consequence of McKay's landmark Romance in Marseille, a text that is, despite its absence from broad public access for nearly 80 years, conceivably the most significant early black diaspora text.] Finally, he examines McKay's extensive FBI file and his late-1930s autobiography, A Long Way from Home, in which McKay disguises his past as a means of eluding his harassers. The memoir is essential to understanding McKay's first three novels. Relying on queer theory and related language-oriented approaches, moreover, this study emphasizes that the key to McKay's queer black Marxism lies as much in confronting his textual absence as it does in rereading the author historically
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
xiv, 273 p.
Contents
  • Introduction: Manifesting Claude McKay
  • Code name Sasha, "My real name"
  • The "distilled poetry" of queer Black Marxism in A Long Way from Home
  • "Dark desire all over the pages": race, nation, and sex in Home to Harlem
  • The "rude anarchy" of "Black boys" in Banjo
  • "Swaying to the music of the moon": Black-White queer solidarity in Romance in Marseille
  • Conclusion: Some remarks on the critical implications of queer Black Marxism
Isbn
9780813034508
Instance
Label
Claude McKay, code name Sasha : queer Black Marxism and the Harlem Renaissance
Title
Claude McKay, code name Sasha
Title remainder
queer Black Marxism and the Harlem Renaissance
Statement of responsibility
Gary Edward Holcomb
Creator
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
"Sasha" was the code name adopted by Harlem Renaissance writer Claude McKay (1889-1948) to foil investigations of his life and work. Over a period of two decades, the FBI, U.S. State Department, British police and intelligence, and French law enforcement and colonial authorities took turns harassing McKay, an openly gay, Marxist, Jamaican expatriate who had left the United States and was living in Europe. In this study of four of McKay's texts--the first literary, cultural, and historical analysis to address the multilayered "queer black anarchism" in McKay's writings--Holcomb argues that McKay's "fringe" perspective not only targeted him for investigation but also contributed to a declining literary reputation. Perceived as mystifying and unacceptable because of his dedication to communism, McKay is perplexing and difficult to classify within the traditional constructs of the Harlem Renaissance. The problem that McKay's transnational, aesthetically itinerant writing inevitably has posed is where to locate him. In recent years, access into McKay's work has been transformed by new methods of interpreting the politics of literary texts, the growing significance of transnationality in literary and cultural analysis, and the impact of "queer theory." Holcomb analyzes three of the most important works in McKay's career--the Jazz Age bestseller Home to Harlem, the negritude manifesto Banjo, and the unpublished Romance in Marseille. Holcomb uncovers ways in which Home to Harlem assembles a homefront queer black anarchism, and treats Banjo as a novel that portrays Marxist internationalist sexual dissidence. [Among the most notable contributions to black modernist study, Holcomb's scholarship is the first to assess the consequence of McKay's landmark Romance in Marseille, a text that is, despite its absence from broad public access for nearly 80 years, conceivably the most significant early black diaspora text.] Finally, he examines McKay's extensive FBI file and his late-1930s autobiography, A Long Way from Home, in which McKay disguises his past as a means of eluding his harassers. The memoir is essential to understanding McKay's first three novels. Relying on queer theory and related language-oriented approaches, moreover, this study emphasizes that the key to McKay's queer black Marxism lies as much in confronting his textual absence as it does in rereading the author historically
Biography type
contains biographical information
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Holcomb, Gary Edward
Government publication
government publication of a state province territory dependency etc
Illustrations
facsimiles
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • African Americans
  • Jamaican Americans
  • African Americans
  • Blacks in literature
  • Bisexuality in literature
  • Communism in literature
  • Harlem Renaissance
  • Black nationalism
  • McKay, Claude
  • McKay, Claude
Label
Claude McKay, code name Sasha : queer Black Marxism and the Harlem Renaissance, Gary Edward Holcomb
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [249]-262) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Introduction: Manifesting Claude McKay -- Code name Sasha, "My real name" -- The "distilled poetry" of queer Black Marxism in A Long Way from Home -- "Dark desire all over the pages": race, nation, and sex in Home to Harlem -- The "rude anarchy" of "Black boys" in Banjo -- "Swaying to the music of the moon": Black-White queer solidarity in Romance in Marseille -- Conclusion: Some remarks on the critical implications of queer Black Marxism
Control code
ocm78893075
Dimensions
25 cm.
Extent
xiv, 273 p.
Isbn
9780813034508
Lccn
2007001296
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
facsims.
Label
Claude McKay, code name Sasha : queer Black Marxism and the Harlem Renaissance, Gary Edward Holcomb
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [249]-262) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Introduction: Manifesting Claude McKay -- Code name Sasha, "My real name" -- The "distilled poetry" of queer Black Marxism in A Long Way from Home -- "Dark desire all over the pages": race, nation, and sex in Home to Harlem -- The "rude anarchy" of "Black boys" in Banjo -- "Swaying to the music of the moon": Black-White queer solidarity in Romance in Marseille -- Conclusion: Some remarks on the critical implications of queer Black Marxism
Control code
ocm78893075
Dimensions
25 cm.
Extent
xiv, 273 p.
Isbn
9780813034508
Lccn
2007001296
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
facsims.

Subject

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