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The Resource Race, gender, & comparative Black modernism : Suzanne Lacascade, Marita Bonner, Suzanne C{u28A5}saire, Dorothy West, Jennifer M. Wilks

Race, gender, & comparative Black modernism : Suzanne Lacascade, Marita Bonner, Suzanne C{u28A5}saire, Dorothy West, Jennifer M. Wilks

Creator
Summary
"Race, Gender, and Comparative Black Modernism revives and critiques four African American and Francophone Caribbean women writers often overlooked in discussions of early-twentieth-century literature: Guadeloupean Suzanne Lacascade (dates unknown), African American Marita Bonner (1899-1971), Martinican Suzanne Cesaire (1913-1966), and African American Dorothy West (1907-1998). Reexamining their most significant work, Jennifer M. Wilks demonstrates how their writing challenges prevailing racial archetypes such as the New Negro and the Negritude hero of the period from the 1920s to the 1940s, and explores how these writers tapped into modernist currents from expressionism to surrealism to produce progressive treatments of race, gender, and nation that differed from those of currently canonized black writers of the era, the great majority of whom are men." "Wilks begins with Lacascade, whom she deems "best known for being unknown," reading Lacascade's novel Claire-Solange, ame africaine (1924) as a proto feminist, proto-Negritude articulation of Caribbean identity. She then examines the fissures left unexplored in New Negro visions of African American community by showing the ways in which Bonner's essays, plays, and short stories highlight issues of economic class. Cesaire applied the ideas and techniques of surrealism to the French language, and Wilks reveals how her writings in the journal Ttopiques (1941-45) directly and insightfully engage the intellectual influences that informed the work of canonical Negritude. Wilks's close reading of West's The Living Is Easy (1948) provides a retrospective critique of the forces that continued to circumscribe women's lives in the midst of the social and cultural awakening presumably embodied in the New Negro." "To show how the black literary tradition has continued to confront the conflation of gender roles with social and literary conventions, Wilks examines these writers alongside the late-twentieth-century writings of Maryse Conde and Toni Morrison. Unlike many literary analysts, Wilks does not bring together the four writers based on geography. Lacascade and Cesaire came from different Caribbean islands, and though Bonner and West were from the United States, they never crossed paths. In considering this eclectic group of women writers together, Wilks reveals the analytical possibilities opened up by comparing works influenced by multiple intellectual traditions."--Jacket
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
x, 259 pages
Contents
  • Introduction: model modernity
  • A dying exoticism: the enigmatic fiction of Suzanne Lacascade
  • The limits of exemplarity: Marita Bonner's alternative modernist landscapes
  • Surrealist dreams, Martinican realities: the negritude of Suzanne C{u2973}aire
  • Black modernism in retrospect: Dorothy West's new (Negro) women
  • Conclusion: atypical women revisited
Isbn
9780807133644
Instance
Label
Race, gender, & comparative Black modernism : Suzanne Lacascade, Marita Bonner, Suzanne C{u28A5}saire, Dorothy West
Title
Race, gender, & comparative Black modernism
Title remainder
Suzanne Lacascade, Marita Bonner, Suzanne C{u28A5}saire, Dorothy West
Statement of responsibility
Jennifer M. Wilks
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
"Race, Gender, and Comparative Black Modernism revives and critiques four African American and Francophone Caribbean women writers often overlooked in discussions of early-twentieth-century literature: Guadeloupean Suzanne Lacascade (dates unknown), African American Marita Bonner (1899-1971), Martinican Suzanne Cesaire (1913-1966), and African American Dorothy West (1907-1998). Reexamining their most significant work, Jennifer M. Wilks demonstrates how their writing challenges prevailing racial archetypes such as the New Negro and the Negritude hero of the period from the 1920s to the 1940s, and explores how these writers tapped into modernist currents from expressionism to surrealism to produce progressive treatments of race, gender, and nation that differed from those of currently canonized black writers of the era, the great majority of whom are men." "Wilks begins with Lacascade, whom she deems "best known for being unknown," reading Lacascade's novel Claire-Solange, ame africaine (1924) as a proto feminist, proto-Negritude articulation of Caribbean identity. She then examines the fissures left unexplored in New Negro visions of African American community by showing the ways in which Bonner's essays, plays, and short stories highlight issues of economic class. Cesaire applied the ideas and techniques of surrealism to the French language, and Wilks reveals how her writings in the journal Ttopiques (1941-45) directly and insightfully engage the intellectual influences that informed the work of canonical Negritude. Wilks's close reading of West's The Living Is Easy (1948) provides a retrospective critique of the forces that continued to circumscribe women's lives in the midst of the social and cultural awakening presumably embodied in the New Negro." "To show how the black literary tradition has continued to confront the conflation of gender roles with social and literary conventions, Wilks examines these writers alongside the late-twentieth-century writings of Maryse Conde and Toni Morrison. Unlike many literary analysts, Wilks does not bring together the four writers based on geography. Lacascade and Cesaire came from different Caribbean islands, and though Bonner and West were from the United States, they never crossed paths. In considering this eclectic group of women writers together, Wilks reveals the analytical possibilities opened up by comparing works influenced by multiple intellectual traditions."--Jacket
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1973-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Wilks, Jennifer M.
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
index present
LC call number
PS153.N5.W68
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • American literature
  • American literature
  • Caribbean literature (French)
  • Caribbean literature (French)
  • Race in literature
  • Women, Black, in literature
  • Modernism (Literature)
  • Modernism (Literature)
  • Comparative literature
  • Comparative literature
  • Autorin
  • Literatur
  • USA
  • Frankophone Karibik
  • Schwarze
  • American literature
  • American literature
  • Caribbean literature (French)
  • Modernism (Literature)
  • Race in literature
  • Women, Black, in literature
  • Caribbean Area
  • United States
Label
Race, gender, & comparative Black modernism : Suzanne Lacascade, Marita Bonner, Suzanne C{u28A5}saire, Dorothy West, Jennifer M. Wilks
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-245) 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: model modernity -- A dying exoticism: the enigmatic fiction of Suzanne Lacascade -- The limits of exemplarity: Marita Bonner's alternative modernist landscapes -- Surrealist dreams, Martinican realities: the negritude of Suzanne C{u2973}aire -- Black modernism in retrospect: Dorothy West's new (Negro) women -- Conclusion: atypical women revisited
Control code
ocn221151750
Dimensions
24 cm
Extent
x, 259 pages
Isbn
9780807133644
Lccn
2008014734
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations
Label
Race, gender, & comparative Black modernism : Suzanne Lacascade, Marita Bonner, Suzanne C{u28A5}saire, Dorothy West, Jennifer M. Wilks
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-245) 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: model modernity -- A dying exoticism: the enigmatic fiction of Suzanne Lacascade -- The limits of exemplarity: Marita Bonner's alternative modernist landscapes -- Surrealist dreams, Martinican realities: the negritude of Suzanne C{u2973}aire -- Black modernism in retrospect: Dorothy West's new (Negro) women -- Conclusion: atypical women revisited
Control code
ocn221151750
Dimensions
24 cm
Extent
x, 259 pages
Isbn
9780807133644
Lccn
2008014734
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
illustrations

Subject

Genre

Library Locations

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      Chatham Street, Liverpool, L7 7BD, GB
      53.403069 -2.963723

Library Links

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