Playing in the Dark Book Cover

Playing in the Dark


A work of Non-fiction


Subgenres:

  • Literary Criticism,
  • Race and Racism,
  • American Literature
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This book is for you if you're into...

  • Deep dives into how race shapes classic American novels
  • Literary criticism that challenges what you thought you knew
  • Reexamining icons like Poe and Hemingway through a new lens
Publisher Description

An immensely persuasive work of literary criticism that opens a new chapter in the American dialogue on race—and promises to change the way we read American literature—from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner.

Morrison shows how much the themes of freedom and individualism, manhood and innocence, depended on the existence of a black population that was manifestly unfree--and that came to serve white authors as embodiments of their own fears and desires.

Her brilliant discussions of the 'Africanist' presence in the fiction of Poe, Melville, Cather, and Hemingway leads to a dramatic reappraisal of the essential characteristics of our literary tradition.

Written with the artistic vision that has earned the Nobel Prize-winning author a pre-eminent place in modern letters, Playing in the Dark is an invaluable read for avid Morrison admirers as well as students, critics, and scholars of American literature.

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