Lynching in American Literature and Journalism

Yoshinobu Hakutani is professor of English emeritus and university distinguished scholar at Kent State University in Ohio.

This important and timely collection explores diverse representations of lynching in twentieth-century American literature, including fiction and poetry by Dreiser, Faulkner, Wright, Dunbar, Ellison, Miriam Michelson, Leon Forrest, and others. The distinguished roster of contributors considers how, in different ways, creative writers transcended the limitations of conventional journalism that excluded reports of racial violence. An invaluable contribution to interdisciplinary scholarship in American, African American, and modernist studies.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter One: The ‘Girl-Reporter’ Confronts the Lynch Mob: Miriam Michaelson’s A Yellow JournalistDebbie LelekisChapter Two: Theodore Dreiser’s ‘Nigger Jeff’: The Development of an AestheticDonald PizerChapter Three: Theodore Dreiser’s ‘Nigger Jeff,’ “Richard Wright’s ‘Big Boy Leaves Home,’ and LynchingMichael SandersChapter Four: Lynching as an American Tragedy in Theodore Dreiser’s Literary WorksKiyohiko MurayamaChapter Five: Faulkner on LynchingNeil R. McMillen and Noel PolkChapter Six: Lynching in Richard Wright’s ‘Big Boy Leaves Home”Toru KiuchiChapter Seven: “Lynching in Modern American Short Stories and Sexual Crime in Classic Myth”Yoshinobu HakutaniChapter Eight: The Southern Ritual of Lynching in Faulkner’s Light in August and Ellison’s Three Days before the ShootingRobert ButlerChapter Nine: The Electric Execution of Bigger Thomas in Richard Wright’s Native SonYoshinobu HakutaniChapter Ten: Lynching as Surrealism: Leon Forrest’s “The