| Description |
1 online resource (xx, 171 pages) |
| Contents |
Verticality: allegorical symbols of racial and national uplift -- Lila Mae, the invisible woman of The Intuitionist -- Piercing the veil: passing, color blindness, and postracialism -- The American spirit: John Henry's legendary and epic stature among folk heroes such as Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyan -- Heroism and masculinity in the industrial age and the digital age -- Commercial enslavement and liberation in the industrial age versus the digital age -- Apex: the metaphorical bandage that masks but never heals -- New York: a postracial dream realized or an American dream deferred -- The Colossus of New York: a tribute to gothic urban spaces -- Subways, rush hour, and downtown: New Yorkers lead quiet lives of desperation -- Social and philosophical divide: the intersection of class and race for an adolescent and adult Colson Whitehead -- Wright and Whitehead: black hunger in the South and black faces in the Hamptons -- Zone One: postapocalyptic zombies take over Manhattan in the age of nostalgia, despair, and consumption |
| Summary |
"From his first novel, The Intuitionist, in 1999, Colson Whitehead has produced fiction that brilliantly blurs genre and cultural lines to demonstrate the universal angst and integral bonds shared by all Americans. By neglecting to mention a character's racial heritage, Whitehead challenges the cultural assumptions of his readers. His African American protagonists are well educated and upwardly mobile and thus lack some of the social angst that is imposed by racial stratification. Despite the critical acclaim and literary awards Whitehead has received, there have been few in-depth examinations of his work. In Colson Whitehead: The Postracial Voice of Contemporary Literature, Kimberly Fain explores the work of this literary trailblazer, discussing how his novels reconstruct the American identity to be inclusive rather than exclusive and thus broaden the scope of who is considered an American. Whitehead attempts this feat by including African Americans among the class of people who may achieve the American Dream, assuming they are educated and economically mobile. While the conflicts faced by his characters are symptoms of the universal human condition, they assimilate at the expense of cultural alienation and emotional emptiness. In addition to The Intuitionist, Fain also examines John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, The Colossus of New York, Sag Harbor, and Zone One, demonstrating how they bend genre tropes and approach literary motifs from a postracial perspective. Comparing the author to his African American and American literary forebears, as well as examining his literary ambivalence between post-blackness and postracialism, Colson Whitehead offers readers a unique insight to one of the most important authors of the twenty-first century. As such, this book will be of interest to scholars of African American literature, American literature, African American studies, American studies, multicultural studies, gender studies, and literary theory."-- Provided by the publisher |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 155-161) and index |
| Notes |
Print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed |
| Subject |
Whitehead, Colson, 1969- -- Criticism and interpretation
|
| SUBJECT |
Whitehead, Colson, 1969- fast (OCoLC)fst00414921 |
| Subject |
LITERARY CRITICISM -- American -- General.
|
| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| LC no. |
2021677059 |
| ISBN |
9781442250147 |
|
1442250143 |
|
