Category: Literary/Artistic Criticism

  • On “Mulatto” Modern American Poetry Langston Hughes (1902-1967) Compiled and Prepared by Cary Nelson From Langston Hughes (Twayne, 1967) James A. Emanuel This dramatic dialogue offers a tensely individualized conflict between father and son that is hardened by the vigor and scorn of the words and broadened by carefully placed, suggestive details from nature. The…

  • “What Ain’t Called Melungeons is Called Hillbillies”: Southern Appalachia’s In-Between People Forum for Modern Language Studies Volume 40, Issue 3 (2004) page 259-278 DOI: 10.1093/fmls/40.3.259 Rachel Rubin, Professor of American Studies University of Massachusetts, Boston The essay investigates literary evocations of Appalachia’s “in-between” people, the Melungeons. Melungeons are deployed by some as mystery (no one…

  • Performing Miscegenation: Rescuing The White Slave from the Threat of Interracial Desire Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism (ISSN 0888-3203) Volume 13, Number 1 (Fall 1998) pages 71-86 Diana R. Paulin, Assistant Professor of English and American Studies Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut This examination of Bartley Campbell’s 1882 play, The White Slave, emerges out of…

  • “Sons of White Fathers”: Mulatto Vengeance and the Haitian Revolution in Victor Séjour’s “The Mulatto” Nineteenth-Century Literature Volume 65, Number 1 (June 2010) Pages 1–37 DOI: 10.1525/ncl.2010.65.1.1 Marlene L. Daut, Assistant Professor of English and Cultural Studies Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, California Although many literary critics have traced the genealogy of the tragic mulatto/a to…

  • Rhetoric and Silence in Barack Obama’s “Dreams from My Father” Cultural Logic: An Electronic Journal of Marxist Theory and Practice 2009 46 pages ISSN: 1097-3087 Barbara Clare Foley, Professor of English Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey When Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance first appeared in 1995, it was…

  • A masterpiece of the Harlem Renaissance and a canonical work in both the American and the African American literary traditions, “Cane” is now available in a revised and expanded Norton Critical Edition.

  • “’Tain’t no tragedy unless you make it one”: Imitation of Life, Melodrama, and the Mulatta Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory Volume 66, Number 4, Winter 2010 pages 93-113 E-ISSN: 1558-9595, Print ISSN: 0004-1610 Molly Hiro, Assistant Professor of English University of Portland, Portland, Oregon “I just moved here. My name…

  • Imitation of Life Duke University Press 2004 (Originially published in 1933) 352 pages 6 b&w photos, 1 line drawing Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8223-3324-1 Fannie Hurst (1889–1968) Edited by: Daniel Itzkovitz, Associate Professor of  American Literature and Culture Stonehill College, North Easton, Massachusetts A bestseller in 1933, and subsequently adapted into two beloved and controversial films, Imitation…

  • Identity, Discrimination and Violence in Bessie Head’s Trilogy University of South Africa November 2002 71 pages Corwin Luthuli Mhlahlo Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the subject of English This dissertation seeks to explore the perceived intricate relationship that exists between constructed identity, discrimination and violence…

  • Naming the Subject: Recovering “Euro-Asian” History Journal of Women’s History Volume 22, Number 4, Winter 2010 pages 257-262 E-ISSN: 1527-2036, Print ISSN: 1042-7961 Emma J. Teng, T.T. and Wei Fong Chao Professor of Asian Civilizations; Associate Professor of Chinese Studies Massachusetts Institute of Technology The historic election of Barack Obama as America’s first biracial president…