Robert Felgar - Böcker

In Black Boy, Richard Wright triumphs over an ugly, racist world by fashioning an inspiring, powerful, beautiful, and fictionalized autobiography. To help students understand and appreciate his story in the cultural, political, racial, social, and literary contexts of its time, this casebook provides a rich source of primary historical documents, collateral readings, and commentary. The selection of unique documents is designed to place in sharp relief the issue of pervasive racism in American society. Documents include excerpts from other autobiographies and a novel, legal documents, speeches, an interview, an anthropological study, magazine and newspaper articles, and contemporary editorials. Most of the documents are available in no other printed form.From Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. Du Bois on the one hand, to Black Codes, Jim Crow laws, and white supremacist pronouncements on the other, Felgar creates a dialogue between the voices of oppressed blacks, including Richard Wright, and those of oppressing whites over the issue of race and racism. Students will be able to analyze a variety of perspectives on this issue from the earliest days of the American republic to the present day. Felgar also includes primary documents on the American dream of success, which has remained elusive for so many blacks. A chapter on the American autobiographical tradition uses excerpts from Ben Franklin's autobiography, as well as from those by Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and W.E.B. Du Bois, to place Wright squarely in the tradition of this genre and show that Wright was more a believer in the myth of perpetual upward mobility than he realized. In a chapter called The Dream Deferred, documents show how freed blacks were just as enslaved by new and restrictive laws after the Civil War as they had been under slavery. Each chapter concludes with study questions, ideas for written and oral examination, and suggested readings to aid students in examining the issues raised by Wright's autobiography.

Born in rural Mississippi, the grandson of slaves, Richard Wright overcame every social obstacle, including poverty, racism, and limited education to achieve literary recognition as the creator of some of America's most powerful Black literature. Written with unprecendented candor, Wright's works changed the cultural landscape by challenging old stereotypes and myths about race. Wright scholar Robert Felgar has written a critical volume to help students appreciate the literary significance of such groundbreaking works as Native Son and the autobiographical Black Boy. This study serves students of both literature and social history as it explores the themes of racism and all types of insitutionalized oppression that Wright exposed in his provocative writing. Felgar approaches each of Wright's major works in chronological order, offering insightful literary analysis of Uncle Tom's Children, Native Son, Black Boy, and The Outsider, as well as Wright's two works published posthumously, Eight Men, a collection of stories, and Lawd Today! The original, censored works are discussed and compared with the more recently re-published unexpurgated versions.This Student Companion introduces readers to Richard Wright with a biographical chapter, recounting the writer's struggles and achievements. A literary heritage chapter examines the genres, themes, and stylistic traditions that figured in Wright's work. Each of Wright's major works of fiction is given careful literary interpretation, with analysis of plot, character development, thematic concerns and a close alternate reading. A selective bibliography of critical works and reviews, in addition to the listings of Wright's stories, essays and full-length works will help students derive the most from their study of this important American writer.

To celebrate the bicentenary of Frederick Douglass's birth in 2018, this new annotated edition of his classic autobiography shows how his insights on slavery, racism, and the pursuit of self-reliance are still highly relevant today in 21st-century America.Frederick Douglas was a slave, then a free man. He was an abolitionist, a writer, and an orator who became a great social reformer and statesman. Perhaps even more important, he served as a powerful counter-example to white Americans who believed black people could not be their equals. Douglass dedicated his life to the pursuit of freedom and equality for not just African Americans, but for all people, of all races, male and female.The Historian's Narrative of Frederick Douglass: Reading Douglass's Autobiography as Social and Cultural History covers the first decades of Frederick Douglass's life, from his childhood through his escape from slavery in 1838 and his early years as a fiery abolitionist speaker in the North. The book provides readers with the necessary biographical and historical context to better understand and fully appreciate the Douglass's classic memoir. Readers will learn about slavery, the abolitionist movement, efforts of resistance to slavery and escape from it, and the great importance of literacy in combating slavery. The book is written in accessible language that will engage high school and college students as well as general readers, but deals with challenging and provocative concepts.

To celebrate the bicentenary of Frederick Douglass's birth in 2018, this new annotated edition of his classic autobiography shows how his insights on slavery, racism, and the pursuit of self-reliance are still highly relevant today in 21st-century America.Frederick Douglas was a slave, then a free man. He was an abolitionist, a writer, and an orator who became a great social reformer and statesman. Perhaps even more important, he served as a powerful counter-example to white Americans who believed black people could not be their equals. Douglass dedicated his life to the pursuit of freedom and equality for not just African Americans, but for all people, of all races, male and female.The Historian's Narrative of Frederick Douglass: Reading Douglass's Autobiography as Social and Cultural History covers the first decades of Frederick Douglass's life, from his childhood through his escape from slavery in 1838 and his early years as a fiery abolitionist speaker in the North. The book provides readers with the necessary biographical and historical context to better understand and fully appreciate the Douglass's classic memoir. Readers will learn about slavery, the abolitionist movement, efforts of resistance to slavery and escape from it, and the great importance of literacy in combating slavery. The book is written in accessible language that will engage high school and college students as well as general readers, but deals with challenging and provocative concepts.